Ordinary citizens have committed arson over a debunked 5G conspiracy theory

Evidence

On Sunday 5 April 2020, Whitty and two accomplices drove out to Coopers Lane, Kirkby, where they set fire to a phone mast owned by Vodafone. Whitty put on a pair of gloves, forced open the equipment box, and used some firelighters to set the whole thing ablaze. This wasn’t a ‘heat of the moment’ decision; later police investigations show that the arson was carefully premeditated. Whitty was convinced that the latest 5G (fifth-generation) phone masts were somehow linked to the coronavirus pandemic that had recently seized the world in its grip. Evidence obtained from Whitty’s phone suggests that he spent a considerable amount of time researching 5G technology and discussing it with others in online chat rooms. His anxiety about new technology and health, whilst perhaps understandable, is actually based on a false and debunked conspiracy theory that radiation from 5G phone masts lowers our immune systems and can thereby cause or exacerbate the spread of Covid-19. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 4

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the earlier misinformation/radicalization literature that frames online echo chambers as radicalizing agents; also to moral-panic and media-panic theory about new technologies.