[BrianC]

Broadband Engineers Threatened Due To 5G Coronavirus Conspiracies (theguardian.com) 8
Posted by BeauHD on Friday April 03, 2020 @10:40PM from the baseless-theories dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian:
Telecoms engineers are facing verbal and physical threats during the lockdown, as baseless conspiracy theories linking coronavirus to the roll-out of 5G technology spread by celebrities such as Amanda Holden prompt members of the public to abuse those maintaining vital mobile phone and broadband networks. Facebook has removed one anti-5G group in which users were being encouraged to supply footage of them destroying mobile phone equipment, with some contributors seemingly under the pretense that it may stop the spread of coronavirus and some running leaderboards of where equipment had been targeted.

Video footage of a 70ft (20 meter) telephone mast on fire in Birmingham this week has also circulated widely alongside claims it was targeted by anti-5G protesters. Network operator EE told the Guardian that its engineers were still on site assessing the cause of the fire but it "looks likely at this time" that it was an arson attack. The company said it would be working with the police to find the culprits. The problem has become so bad that engineers working for BT Openreach, which provides home broadband services, have also taken to posting public pleas on anti-5G Facebook groups asking to be spared the on-street abuse as they are not involved in maintaining mobile networks. Industry lobby group Mobile UK said the incidents were affecting efforts to maintain networks that are supporting home working and providing critical connectivity to the emergency services, vulnerable consumers and hospitals. Telecoms engineers are considered key workers under the government's guidelines.

[dissident]

People cringe when we have cases of doctors murdered in Africa because local witchdoctors accuse them of being witches and spreading the diseases. But this "thinking" is universal. Humans are trash and deserve what they get.

[BrianC]

After Four More Phone Masts Attacked, YouTube Promises To Remove Some 5G Conspiracy Videos (theguardian.com) 153
Posted by EditorDavid on Monday April 06, 2020 @03:34AM from the darkened-towers dept.
The Guardian reports that YouTube "will reduce the amount of content spreading conspiracy theories about links between 5G technology and coronavirus that it recommends to users, it has said, as four more attacks were recorded on phone masts within 24 hours."
The online video company will actively remove videos that breach its policies, it said. But content that is simply conspiratorial about 5G mobile communications networks, without mentioning coronavirus, is still allowed on the site. YouTube said those videos may be considered "borderline content" and subjected to suppression, including loss of advertising revenue and being removed from search results on the platform.

"We also have clear policies that prohibit videos promoting medically unsubstantiated methods to prevent the coronavirus in place of seeking medical treatment, and we quickly remove videos violating these policies when flagged to us," a YouTube spokesperson said. "We have also begun reducing recommendations of borderline content such as conspiracy theories related to 5G and coronavirus, that could misinform users in harmful ways...."

YouTube says that since early February, it has manually reviewed and removed thousands of videos that spread dangerous or misleading coronavirus information.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Why is this site apparently (so far) apparently quite rational re THIS conspiracy, when it is, overall, so very IRRATIONAL re conspiracies in general?

Examples, Flat Earthers, 911 Truthers, all manner of doomers re MSM fudging the numbers, and in reality "ALL IS DOOM" re economic numbers (and reality be damned).

Given the amount of complete nonsense on the Wuhan conspiracy theory thread (if the authorities are looking for people to treat for mental disease, that's a good starting place), I expected some emotional, irrational, uptake supporting this emotional appeal to "blame something" here.

[EnergyUnlimited]

I don't believe in this conspiracy of course... but I don't like 5G infestation either.
So if some moron with petrol bomb at hand would ask me Could this 5G transmitter irradiate me with corona virus and kill me?", I would answer Yes John, of course it could...

[BrianC]

5G Virus Conspiracy Theory Fueled By Coordinated Effort (bloomberg.com) 102
Posted by BeauHD on Thursday April 09, 2020 @09:25PM from the finger-pointing dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg:
A conspiracy theory linking 5G technology to the outbreak of the coronavirus is quickly gaining momentum, with celebrities including actor Woody Harrelson promoting the idea. But the theory is also getting a boost from what some researchers say is a coordinated disinformation campaign. Marc Owen Jones, a researcher at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, who specializes in online disinformation networks, analyzed 22,000 recent interactions on Twitter mentioning "5G" and "corona," and said he found a large number of accounts displaying what he termed "inauthentic activity." He said the effort bears some hallmarks of a state-backed campaign. "There are very strong indications that some of these accounts are a disinformation operation," Jones said.

Jones said the campaign uses a strategy similar to Russia's Internet Research Agency, which was behind a disinformation campaign during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. But he said he hasn't yet concluded that Russia, or any other government or organization, is behind the effort. Blackbird.AI, a New York-based company that monitors online disinformation campaigns, said it had in recent weeks identified a surge in the number of social media posts promoting the 5G conspiracy theory. In the previous 24 hours, there had been more than 50,000 posts about the topic on Twitter and Reddit, Naushad UzZaman, the company's chief technology officer and co-founder, said on Wednesday. There has been a "significant uptick in inauthentic amplification" of posts on social media linking 5G to the coronavirus, UzZaman said, indicating that there could be a coordinated campaign and bot accounts involved.

[Outcast_Searcher]

I don't believe in this conspiracy of course... but I don't like 5G infestation either.
So if some moron with petrol bomb at hand would ask me Could this 5G transmitter irradiate me with corona virus and kill me?", I would answer Yes John, of course it could...

So is 5G hurting you somehow?

You DO know that before too long, the whole world will be blanketed with WIFI via low orbiting satellites, right? So you'll have active WIFI connections in mostly unpopulated ares, all over the ocean, near the poles, etc. (Not saying at what speed -- just pointing out it will be ubiquitous).

So not sure what good hating on 5G does, unless it's hurting you somehow.

But yeah, given politics and also human nature generally, it's not surprising that someone would like to try to gain some advantage by misinforming ignorant people. Not at ALL.

[asg70]

Why is this site apparently (so far) apparently quite rational re THIS conspiracy

That seems premature.

[REAL Green]

This is one of the best articles I have read pointing to laboratory enhancement of COVID-19. It also places blame with a series of international efforts with a process of viral research with China and the US being most involved. It is likely it finally backfired in Wuhan but the process started in many other locations only culminating over time in Wuhan. This is about science and the scientific process going horribly wrong. Will this monster change our desire to play with monsters?

“What 'The Expanse' Tells Us About The COVID-19 Pandemic And Gain-Of-Function Research”
https://harvardtothebighouse.com/2020/0 ... -pandemic/

“Instead, COVID-19 emerged out of nowhere, or more likely just out of a local lab, and was immediately extraordinarily well-adapted to humans – spreading through the air with ease, killing as it went. Plus there’s the fact that all the initial victims were infected with the same variant, if a natural zoonotic jump had occurred, multiple different variants would inevitably have been found at the start of an outbreak. And so as our titular quote alludes to, although its certainly possible to train a monkey to warm up a frozen burrito in a microwave, it’s pretty damn unlikely that a wild monkey that’d never been in contact with humans before could be presented with a frozen burrito and a microwave, and figure out to heat up a snack. In the same way, everything about the way COVID-19 interacts with its human hosts and spreads among them indicates that it’s been artificially trained to be familiar with human biology – bizarrely blocking our senses of smell and taste before doing anything else, spreading readily among asymptomatic patients and then infecting and killing us with far more efficiency than any natural emergent virus at the start of its outbreak, and first emerging without taking any of the steps necessary to naturally perform a zoonotic jump into humans.”

[Outcast_Searcher]

This is one of the best articles I have read pointing to laboratory enhancement of COVID-19.

Not much on details backed up by good sources. More about wild eyed exaggeration, like how "millions more" American deaths will be inevitable within weeks. Well, it's been about 3 weeks since this was published, and 20,000+ isn't remotely close to millions, and as bad as things look, no credible scenario looks like "millions more" Americans will die. (Hundreds of thousands, if various things go wrong, perhaps, which is plenty bad enough).

And I'm no virologist or even a doctor, but in a virus which doesn't mutate much (as the MSM has cited multiple experts pointing out), one wouldn't expect it to have lots of variation right away. Unless, of course, the purpose of this piece is to spread paranoid delusions.

Looking back at "past writings" and the mission statement of the site this is on, I'm not buying this.

But of course, if the MSM doesn't agree with the story and report on it, then it MUST be some big conspiracy, right? The flat-earthers certainly have us there, for example.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Why is this site apparently (so far) apparently quite rational re THIS conspiracy

That seems premature.

So far means so far. Obviously, I can make no claim about the future on that.

[EnergyUnlimited]

You DO know that before too long, the whole world will be blanketed with WIFI via low orbiting satellites, right? So you'll have active WIFI connections in mostly unpopulated ares, all over the ocean, near the poles, etc. (Not saying at what speed -- just pointing out it will be ubiquitous).

I am not sure about that.
At some point civilization will break down and techno-crap go into abyss where it belongs.
It is all question of *timing*.

But yeah, given politics and also human nature generally, it's not surprising that someone would like to try to gain some advantage by misinforming ignorant people. Not at ALL.

Indeed.

[BrianC]

Conspiracy Theories Provoke 30 Arson Attacks and Vandalism Against UK Cellphone Towers (msn.com) 102
Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday April 12, 2020 @04:34AM from the anti-social-media dept.
Conspiracy theorists have committed more than 30 acts of arson and vandalism against U.K. wireless towers and other telecom gear, reports the New York Times, citing police reports and a telecom trade group.

But what's stirring them up? For starters, over two million people watched a 5G conspiracy video on YouTube last month, the Times notes, adding that the misinformation is also spreading widely through other social media sites:
An analysis by The New York Times found 487 Facebook communities, 84 Instagram accounts, 52 Twitter accounts, and dozens of other posts and videos pushing the conspiracy. The Facebook communities added nearly half a million new followers over the past two weeks. On Instagram, a network of 40 accounts nearly doubled its audience this month to 58,800 followers. On YouTube, the 10 most popular 5G coronavirus conspiracy videos posted in March were viewed over 5.8 million times. Today, the conspiracy can be found on Facebook in over 30 countries, including Switzerland, Uruguay and Japan...

"This is nonsense of the absolute highest order," said Julian Knight, a member of Parliament who leads a committee investigating coronavirus-related online misinformation. He said Facebook and YouTube needed to "get a grip" on the situation or risk undermining the crisis response. Mr. Knight added that the spread of 5G conspiracies raised alarms about how information about a future coronavirus vaccine would be disseminated. "If we were to get a vaccine for Covid-19, can we trust the social media companies to ensure that the right public health messages are put out about that vaccine?" he asked...

Facebook, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, said it was "starting to remove false claims that 5G technology causes the symptoms of or contraction of Covid-19." YouTube said it would reduce recommendations of videos linking the coronavirus to 5G, while Twitter said it had taken action against misleading and harmful content about the illness.

Telecommunications companies, which have added more security and are working with law enforcement, said the attacks against their workers and equipment had been widespread, threatening communication networks during the crisis.

A YouTube spokesman told the BBC this week that YouTube has toughened its stance against conspiracy theories. "Now any content that disputes the existence or transmission of Covid-19, as described by the World Health Organization and local health authorities is in violation of YouTube policies. This includes conspiracy theories which claim that the symptoms are caused by 5G."

But "Everything about this is senseless," says the head of BT, who points out that most of the attacked phone masks don't even carry the 5G signal.

[asg70]

Conspiracy Theories Provoke 30 Arson Attacks and Vandalism Against UK Cellphone Towers

Derrick Jensen must be celebrating that story.

[REAL Green]

Another piece of the puzzle:


“Explosive Report: Wuhan Biolab Captured Bats From Caves Traced To COVID-19 Outbreak, Had US Funding”
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/explos ... us-funding

“Recent findings regarding the origin of COVID-19 continue to support our January reporting that the disease may have originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology - which was experimenting with bat coronavirus found to be 96% genetically identical to COVID-19. On Saturday, the Daily Mail added an important piece to the puzzle; the institute was experimenting on mammals captured over 1,000 miles away in Yunnan - which is particularly notable because genetic analysis of COVID-19's genome has traced it to horseshoe bats found in Yunnan's caves. Also disturbing is that the lab had been operating in part on a $3.7 million grant from the US government.”

[Outcast_Searcher]

You DO know that before too long, the whole world will be blanketed with WIFI via low orbiting satellites, right? So you'll have active WIFI connections in mostly unpopulated ares, all over the ocean, near the poles, etc. (Not saying at what speed -- just pointing out it will be ubiquitous).

I am not sure about that.
At some point civilization will break down and techno-crap go into abyss where it belongs.
It is all question of *timing*.

OK, you got me.

If humanity is wiped out within a few years, that could happen.

Otherwise, the plans are laid, and multiple outfits are going to be sending a total of many tens of thousands of satellites into orbit


So outside the usual fast-crash-lotsa-doom fantasies, yes, this is going to happen. And of course, this is another example of humans continuing to make AGW worse, despite educated people generally knowing better.

So longer term relative doom for billions is looking pretty much intact, overall, IMO.

Examples:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/4/18295 ... x-starlink

https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-s ... -2020.html

https://nypost.com/2019/10/16/spacex-wa ... nto-space/

[BrianC]

'Murder Threats' To Telecoms Engineers Over 5G (bbc.com) 96
Posted by msmash on Thursday April 23, 2020 @04:50PM from the how-about-that dept.
Telecoms engineers have told Radio 1 Newsbeat they're being threatened and harassed by people who believe they're working on 5G, which has been wrongly linked to coronavirus. From a report:
Claims about any link have been branded complete rubbish by scientists. But the union and trade body representing thousands of workers across the UK say they've had around 120 cases of abuse reported to them. The reports have included threats of extreme violence. "We've actually had cases where people have been threatened with being stabbed, threatened with physical violence and in some cases actually threatened with murder," says Andy Kerr, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU). CWU represents nearly 40,000 telecoms engineers. Andy says most aren't even working on 5G -- they're maintaining the network and playing "a crucial role." "People are stuck at home -- whether they want to watch their box set of Peaky Blinders or somebody's isolated and they want to keep in touch with family. "The only way to do that is the telecom network. More importantly these are engineers maintaining the network so it's there for all the health and emergency services."

[BrianC]

Cell-Tower Attacks By Idiots Who Claim 5G Spreads COVID-19 Reportedly Hit US (arstechnica.com) 198
Posted by BeauHD on Monday May 18, 2020 @09:25PM from the misinformation-campaigns dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:
The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly issuing alerts to wireless telecom providers and law enforcement agencies about potential attacks on cell towers and telecommunications workers by 5G/coronavirus conspiracy theorists. The DHS warned that there have already been "arson and physical attacks against cell towers in several U.S. states." The preposterous claim that 5G can spread the coronavirus, either by suppressing the immune system or by directly transmitting the virus over radio waves, led to dozens of tower burnings in the UK and mainland Europe. Now, the DHS "is preparing to advise the U.S. telecom industry on steps it can take to prevent attacks on 5G cell towers following a rash of incidents in Western Europe fueled by the false claim that the technology spreads the pathogen causing COVID-19," The Washington Post reported last week.

The DHS alert will include "advice on ways to reduce the risk of attack, including installing appropriate sensing and barriers, cyber-intrusion detection systems, closed-circuit television and monitoring drone activity near towers," the Post article said. A telecom-industry official said that carriers in the U.S. "have seen sporadic attacks on their cell towers that were apparently prompted by COVID-19 disinformation" over the past few weeks, the Post wrote. In addition to warning telecoms, DHS reportedly issued an intelligence report on the topic "to senior federal officials and law enforcement agencies around the country," ABC News reported Saturday. DHS also teamed with the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center to issue a joint intelligence bulletin to federal officials and law enforcement agencies, the ABC News report said.

[dissident]

The real conspiracy is to undermine China since it is the current 5G "monopolist". How easy it is to trigger tin foil hat retards to believe in BS that would make Medieval villagers cringe.

[BrianC]

A $350 'Anti-5G' Device Is Just a 128MB USB Stick, Teardown Finds (arstechnica.com) 136
Posted by BeauHD on Thursday May 28, 2020 @11:20PM from the USB-key-with-a-sticker-on-it dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:
Believers of 5G conspiracy theories have apparently been buying a $350 anti-5G USB key that -- not surprisingly -- appears to just be a regular USB stick with only 128MB of storage. As noted by the BBC today, the "5GBioShield" USB stick "was recommended by a member of Glastonbury Town Council's 5G Advisory Committee, which has called for an inquiry into 5G." The company that sells 5GBioShield claims it "is the result of the most advanced technology currently available for balancing and prevention of the devastating effects caused by non-natural electric waves, particularly (but not limited to) 5G, for all biological life forms." The product's website charges 283 British pounds for a single 5GBioShield, which converts to nearly $350. That's what it costs to get "protection for your home and family, thanks to the wearable holographic nano-layer catalyser, which can be worn or placed near to a smartphone or any other electrical, radiation or EMF emitting device." The USB stick apparently doesn't need to be plugged in to anything to work its magic. "It is always ON and working -- that's why we used quantum nano-layer technology," the company says in an FAQ.

But what does the 5GBioShield actually consist of? The BBC pointed to a recent teardown by security company Pen Test Partners, which found that the device is just a USB stick with 128MB of storage. The company wrote: "When plugged in to our test machine we may have missed the bubble of 'quantum holographic catalyzer technology' appearing. The stick comes loaded with a 25 page PDF version of the material from 5GBioShield's website. It included a Q&A of distances for the "bubble" and how to know if it is working. It's an "always on" system apparently, is always working, powered or not, so no visual checks needed. A review of the stick's properties revealed nothing more than what you'd expect from a regular 128MB USB key. We weren't even sure that 128s are still in production!"
The report says that the London Trading Standards has launched a probe to investigate this product.

How will the company defend itself? BioShield Distribution Director Anna Grochowalska told the BBC, "We are in possession of a great deal of technical information, with plenty of back-up historical research," and "we are not authorized to fully disclose all this sensitive information to third parties, for obvious reasons."