5G

5G is the most recent update of the international standards dictating mobile phone network technology. The upgrades will lead to faster download speeds and improved capacity for devices, which is important given the ever-increasing number of connected devices.
Despite the scientific consensus being that 5G is safe, there is a large community of people who fear that the wide-scale implementation of 5G will cause something bad to happen, ranging from a public health crisis to a mind control program like MKULTRA. Complicating the conspiracy theory matter is the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, which happened to coincide with 5G network installations in several countries, resulting in a completely wrong connection between coronavirus and 5G. Although adverse effects of the level described by many conspiracy loons are downright impossible, there is still some uncertainty around the possibility of smaller adverse health effects.https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/we-have-no-reason-to-believe-5g-is-safe/
==Technological overview==
:See the more technical article on this topic at Wikipedia: 
5G is a technology standard for cellular networks, the fifth generation of this standard. The basic difference between this and its predecessor, is improved bandwidth enabling faster downloads and the ability to support more devices connected to the internet, beyond just mobile phones. In recent years, the greater usage of devices and equipment with increasing reliance on the internet have stressed existing 3G and 4G networks. However, older mobile phones predating the 5G standard will not be able to operate on 5G. Other advantages of 5G include the ability to use "beams" targeting the radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF EMF) to end users, instead of having to simply blanket a wide area. This has a two-fold advantage; the ability to direct RF EMF directly to an intended user means that the same frequency can be used by multiple users at once. The other advantage actually reduces exposure to the RF EMF, as 5G does not need to blanket a wide area in order to function, the way previous generations did. December 2019. 5G - Fifth generation of mobile technologies.
===5G and its impact on human health===
The (ICNIRP) laid out guidelines for exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields that limit power outputs to prevent harm. 5G operates electromagnetic fields in the 24GHz range, which is higher than existing networks that use 4GHz range. However, the 2020 regulation changes account for this by requiring peak spatial power to remain well below a point where RF EMF could inflict harm to a human being who is using a device or being in an area that has 5G coverage from a cell phone tower.
Exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields can cause harm… if you do something incredibly stupid, like try to hug a cell phone tower antenna… the vertical bars that are at the top of the tower, really high up in the air… for a long time. Then yeah, it could hurt you. The harm being heatstroke and burns to exposed tissue, again if you're exposed to an excessive amount of RF EMF by doing something incredibly stupid.
Your cell phone, and an antenna up in the air, do not pose a risk to human health. (ICNIRP). icnirp.org. 5G - Radiofrequency - RF EMF. So yeah, ironically, the people who are attacking 5G towers (see section below) are actually increasing the likelihood of harm to themselves by getting closer than intended to operational equipment. But they are still at far greater risk of harm from either falling from an aerial platform, dropping the mast on their head, or scorching themselves with their own Molotov (we will now play the world's smallest violin).
==Conspiracies==
Initially, conspiracy statements against 5G were similar to that of mobile phone signals, radio signals, and other sources of it causes various cancers, deep state. The usual sorts of things for anything new. InfoWars and Russia Today (RT) in particular pushed 5G conspiracies since early 2016.Gallagher, Ryan. Bloomberg. 9 April, 2020. 5G Virus Conspiracy Theory Fueled by Coordinated Effort.
===5G and COVID-19===
====Origins====
On 22 January 2020, an article was published in the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws with the headline "5G is levensgevaarlijk en niemand die het weet" ("5G is life-threatening, and no one knows it").Artikel verwijderd. Zegt weer genoeg by @NWOforum (11:28 PM - 1 Feb 2020) Twitter (archived from 23 May 2020 07:27:28 UTC). In this article, a connection was drawn between the construction of numerous 5G cell towers around China and the cluster of COVID-19 cases in said location, with 440 infected and 9 dead at the time. Adding to this, general practitioner Kris Van Kerckhoven stated, "I have not done a fact check, but it may be a link with current events”.
In a total failure of everyone in an oversight role at Het Laatste Nieuws, this story was allowed to run in a regional edition of the print paper and posted to their website before being removed several hours later.Temperton, James. Wired. 6 April, 2020. How the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory tore through the internet.
Some speculate this to be the origin of the conspiracy theory tying 5G to coronavirus. Despite the paper coming to its senses pretty quick and pulling the article, it had already spread to the anti-5G community. Its removal didn't really help, because it naturally just gave "proof" that the conspiracy was afoot.@NWOforum. Twitter. 1 February, 2020. Tweet Archived. (Archived 22 April, 2020).
====Move to mainstream====
Initially, this nonsense remained pretty self-contained within anti-5G communities, and conspiracy theorists and went largely unnoticed in the mainstream. Then everyone's favorite inept social media robots kicked in: algorithms, which propelled the conspiracy into the mainstream.
The issue became a far greater problem (even compared to the bog-standard conspiracy theories already being amplified by the social media algorithm) when numerous celebrities with broad reach on social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram started talking about it; Jason Gardiner, Lucy Watston, Eamonn Holmes, Woody Harrelson, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., David Icke, Keri Hilson, Amanda Holden, and Amir Khan all posted or made statements in support of the conspiracy. This appears to have acted like jet fuel to the fire. Naturally, when called out for spreading such dangerous conspiracies, they turn to our favorite "defenses" and old friend, logical fallacies: Just asking questions, I haven't fact checked this and I'm not an expert.Eamonn Holmes responds to complaints over handling of Covid-19 5G claims: The ITV presenter says that to suggest a connection between Covid-19 and 5G ‘would be wrong and could be dangerous’ by Jim Waterson (14 April, 2020) The Guardian.
Prior to the conspiracy theory, British rapper has been very vocal in her opposition to 5G, but has been tweeting a fair bit about it, complaining about telecom workers carrying out their work. One tweet asserted a connection with a "prior pandemic" and "radio waves" before making a connection between 5G and coronavirus.Bradley, Laura. The Daily Beast. 6 April, 2020. Celebrities Are Spreading a Wacky Coronavirus 5G Conspiracy and They Need to Stop.
Naturally, the far right have also embraced the conspiracy theory and are pushing it, because grift and recruitment. This being the far right, antisemitism is of course involved.Quinn, Ben. The Guardian. 12 April, 2020. Facebook acts to halt far-right groups linking Covid-19 to 5G.
After allowing it to fester for several weeks and become a massive problem, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter finally started to (kind of) take action against people and accounts spreading 5G-coronavirus conspiracy theories.Kelion, Leo. BBC. 7 April, 2020. Coronavirus: YouTube tightens rules after David Icke 5G interview.. 23 April, 2020. Coronavirus: Twitter bans incitement to attack 5G towers. Nothing new for those lazy conglomerates, of course.
====Consequences====
The ramifications of this misinformation has had real consequences. The UK reported that at least 50 mobile phone towers or equipment boxes had been targeted in arson attacks in 2020. In just four days from 2 to 5 April 2020, at least 20 mobile phone masts had been set on fire or otherwise vandalized.Waterson, Jim. Hern, Alex. The Guardian. 6 April, 2020. At least 20 UK phone masts vandalised over false 5G coronavirus claims. In addition to destruction of property, conspiracy theorists have taken to filming and harassing telecommunication workers. In late April, Openreach reported 20 incidents of workers being abused by members of the public, who were also filming them. Workers also reported having objects thrown at them, as well as threats of violent assault and murder; some workers even took steps to try and disguise their vehicles and uniforms to avoid harassment while on the job.BBC. 23 April, 2020. Coronavirus: 'Murder threats' to telecoms engineers over 5G. In typical fashion, since these people are fucking idiots, most of the workers they're harassing have no involvement with the installation or maintenance of 5G equipment.Waterson, Jim. The Guardian. 3 April, 2020. Broadband engineers threatened due to 5G coronavirus conspiracies. Worse, the abuse has gone beyond verbal taunting and threats. One Openreach apprentice network engineer was spat on by an irate member of the public, and then fell ill with a suspected case of coronavirus.Temperton, James. Wired. 7 May, 2020. The 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory just took a really dark turn.
In the Netherlands, police opened investigation into multiple arson attacks and attempted arson attacks on mobile phone towers and radio towers. The phrase "Fuck 5G" was found painted at the scene of one tower.Newmark, Zack. 'NL Times. 11 April, 2020. Five telecom towers torched in possible 5G-conspiracy arson protest.
====What is the conspiracy exactly?====
This is actually one of the bigger head scratchers of the whole thing. There isn't a conspiracy theory about 5G and coronavirus. There's more like a half dozen, at least:
And that's not including the other non-coronavirus related 5G conspiracy theories, which involve cancer, Bill Gates, and the New World Order. In fact, just like for QAnon, a similar non sequitur tornado of a map was created (under the name "deep state mapping project") that attempted to identify and connect many of the usual subjects in the conspiracy world to 5G (such as the Rockefeller Foundation), as well as many oddball subjects (such as the ).Deepstatemappingproject.com, archived on 2020 May 26
This creates a wack-a-mole problem for trying to "disprove" the theories, because the wide variety of them makes it easy to move the goalposts for theorists, while making it challenging for officials and experts to disprove theories by having too many to deal with and too many contradictory ones.Waterson, Jim. Hern, Alex. The Guardian. 7 April, 2020. How false claims about 5G health risks spread into the mainstream.. 31 March, 2020. 5G is not accelerating the spread of the new coronavirus.
Just about every organization involved with telecommunications or non-ionizing radiation has come forward to dispel these claims; even the released a statement trying to calm concerns about 5G. 5G Covid-19 Statement.Schraer, Rachel. Lawrie, Eleanor. BBC. 15 April, 2020. Coronavirus: Scientists brand 5G claims 'complete rubbish'.
===Non-coronavirus conspiracy theories===
As mentioned briefly above, coronavirus was not the origin of concerns and conspiracy about 5G; fearmongering started way back in 2016.Weiss, Sabrina. Wired. 12 June, 2019. 5G health risks are the internet's new favourite conspiracy theory.
==Actual concerns==
There are actual valid concerns with the rollout of 5G, but these are actually related to the complicated ways that frequencies and the signals on them interact with each other… You know, actual science and not made-up bullshit. So naturally, nobody's really paying much attention to these.
===Weather forecasting===
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA and the United States Navy have all expressed concerns about the auction of the 24.25GHz to 25.25GHz band spectrum.Brodkin, Jon. Ars Technica. 5 May, 2019. 5G likely to mess with weather forecasts, but FCC auctions spectrum anyway
Weather forecasting makes heavy use of humidity to determine future forecasts. Water vapor emits a signal at 23.8GHz, which is used to predict future weather forecasts and developing storms.Witze, Alexandra. Nature. 22 November, 2019. Global 5G wireless deal threatens weather forecasts
NOAA's predictions about the matter are rather grim: basically a loss of 77% of data gathered via passive microwave samples, if the FCC's plan is implemented. This would dump our weather forecasting abilities back into the 1980s level of effectiveness. Communities could receive 2-3 fewer days' warning to prepare for hurricanes, and the projected storm paths may become less accurate than they currently are.
Ajit Pai, then the chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission, told Congress that NOAA was wrong. Specifically, he cited that microwave links operating just under 23.8GHz not causing interference, a 250MHz separation between 23.8 and 24.25GHz bands and 5G being "beamforming", describing it as "sort of a rifle shot, if you will, instead of a shotgun blast of 5G spectrum."Brodkin, Jon. Ars Technica. 13 June, 2019. Ajit Pai says NOAA and NASA are wrong about 5G harming weather forecasts
Oh, and it gets worse: future plans call for the auctioning of more band spectra in proximity to the bands used for rain and snow (36-37GHz), atmospheric temperature (50.2-50.4GHz), and clouds (80-90GHz).Miller, Eric. Wired. 17 June, 2019. 5G Networks Could Throw Weather Forecasting Into Chaos
Additionally, the problem is global, with the (ITU) agreeing to relaxed standards that enraged the (WMO). These standards allow for a buffer of -33 decibels watts, until 1 September 2027, and -39 decibels afterward. This is far below the -55 decibels desired by the WMO and -42 requested by European regulators, but above the United States' -20 decibels. A joint study by NOAA and NASA indicated a minimum of -52.4 decibels was required to avoid interference with meteorological data.
===Global Positioning Systems===
The Department of Defense has objected to plans by the FCC to start auctioning off for 5G networks. It is currently being used for GPS and other military systems.
Ligado, the company vying for the band spectrum, responded, including the line "Can it really be true that our military operations are vulnerable to a 10-watt lightbulb?" However, it seems they don't understand the Even a low power signal can cause interference. Furthermore, 2011 testing discovered that GPS signals can be disrupted by transmissions on the ground.Gallagher, Sean. Ars Technica. 11 November, 2019. DOD joins fight against 5G spectrum proposal, citing risks to GPS
It should surprise no one that these concerns were ignored by the FCC, and the plan was approved.Brodkin, Jon. Ars Technica. 20 April, 2020. FCC approves 5G network despite military saying it will harm GPS The Department of Defense and Department of Transportation issued a joint letter condemning the move.Erwin, Sandra. SpaceNews. 18 April, 2020. DoD issues new rebuke of FCC’s decision to allow Ligado 5G network
===AT&T 5G E===
So, one of the least important controversies was this nonsense where decided that their existing 4G network was 5G.Amadeo, Ron. Ars Technica. 7 January, 2019. AT&T decides 4G is now “5G,” starts issuing icon-changing software updates Specifically, they updated their mobile phones to change the icon indicating when a phone was in an area with 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE), so it would read "5G E"; when they finally get actual 5G, the icon will read "5G+". Shockingly, AT&T's competitors didn't particularly care for the advertisements where AT&T claimed it offered 5G service that was really 4G LTE.Brodkin, Jon. Ars Technica. 8 February, 2019. AT&T sued by Sprint, must defend decision to tell users that 4G is “5G E” In May 2020, AT&T agreed to stop using the phrase "5G Evolution" in advertisements, after the ruled against AT&T and demanded the ads be discontinued. AT&T, however, would keep using the "5G E" icon.Brodkin, Jon. Ars Technica. 21 May, 2019. AT&T still refuses to kill misleading 5GE network icon for 4G service
===Health effects===
Although 5G is most certainly quite safe (if not incredibly safe), there are still some concerns. For instance, there is credible evidence that wavelengths used by even existing cell phone technologies can be harmful, but only in excess.https://www.niehs.nih.gov/ntp-temp/tr595_508.pdfhttps://www.niehs.nih.gov/ntp-temp/tr596_508.pdf It is also worth noting that other studies have also raised some concerns that the EMF radiation emitted by 5G technologies could potentially have some adverse health effects, including the alteration of gene expression, cell proliferation, and protein synthesis.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2018.01.011 However, all of this is still fairly uncertain, and if anything, most credible reviews and studies suggest that a good solution would be merely revising existing EMF exposure limits, rather than scrapping and recalling the technology as a whole.
==Huawei scandal==
5G requires massive infrastructure upgrades, something that Chinese company and positioned themselves to get a sizable share of the market, as two of the five main providers of 5G infrastructure components. However, concerns were raised by the United States about the companies' ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the opportunity to spy on foreign nations via their phone network equipment.Sabbagh, Dan. The Guardian. 19 February, 2020. US ‘very concerned’ over Huawei’s role in UK 5G network. The Trump administration discouraged several countries, including Canada, Belgium, Italy, Germany, and the UK, from using Huawei and ZTE in their new networks.Reuters. 6 March, 2020. Top U.S. envoy presses Canada over Huawei role in 5G network: officials.Emmott, Robin. Reuters. 5 February, 2019. U.S. warns European allies not to use Chinese gear for 5G networks.
===United States===
On May 15, 2019, then-President Trump signed an executive order that banned American companies from using equipment made by firms that pose a national security risk. The order, which notably targeted Huawei and ZTE Corporation, was extended on May 13, 2020 for another year.Chen, Yawen. Lee, Se Young. Reuters. 16 May, 2019. China slams U.S. blacklisting of Huawei as trade tensions rise.Shepardson, David. Freifeld, Karen. Reuters. 13 May, 2020. Trump extends U.S. telecom supply chain order aimed at Huawei, ZTE. However, in early May 2020, the United States Department of Commerce drafted a new rule that would allow American companies to work with Huawei in standards bodies; the reason simply being that the US was being left behind in terms of the development of 5G standards.Freifeld, Karen. Prentice, Chris. Reuters. 6 May, 2020. Exclusive: U.S. drafts rule to allow Huawei and U.S. firms to work together on 5G standards - sources.
===United Kingdom===
British intelligence agencies disputed concerns raised to the UK government by the Trump administration about the possibility of China spying via Huawei equipment in their 5G network.Sabbagh, Dan. The Guardian. 14 January, 2020. UK rebuffs US presentation on Huawei security risks.
The UK ultimately decided to allow limited use of Huawei equipment in the country's 5G network, limiting it to 35% of the outer parts of the network, like radio masts; it additionally prohibited the company's technology from being used in the core of the network, or in areas in close proximity to military and nuclear installations.Kelion, Leo. BBC. 28 January, 2020. Huawei set for limited role in UK 5G networks. This forced two companies to make changes to their 5G equipment, due to the fact that over 35% of their already installed equipment was made by Huawei. Mick Mulvaney said that allowing Huawei equipment into the UK 5G network would have "a direct and dramatic impact" on the US sharing intelligence with the UK.
Furthermore, there was a craze of setting fire to 5G towers, at a time when public money was not growing off trees (or masts). Criminals who believe to have become radiation scientists overnight appear to be the culprit.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52164358 This has been taken up by various right-wing groups and even more hippie-leaning type folk too — none of which have credible evidence that 5G harms human beings.
==See also==
* N8 State
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Conspiracy theories
Category:Conspiracy theorist scapegoats
Category:Internet
Category:Radio
Category:Radiophobia
Category:Technology