At least 20 UK phone masts vandalised over false 5G coronavirus claims

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

At least 20 UK phone masts vandalised over false 5G coronavirus claims

Industry body assures people in open letter there is no link between 5G and pandemic

Jim Waterson and Alex Hern
Mon 6 Apr 2020 15.08 BST
Last modified on Mon 6 Apr 2020 18.03 BST

At least 20 mobile phone masts across the UK are believed to have been torched or otherwise vandalised since Thursday, according to government and industry sources who are increasingly concerned about the impact of baseless theories linking coronavirus to 5G networks.

There have been noticeable clusters of attacks on masts around Liverpool and the West Midlands. Owing to the slow rollout of 5G in the UK, many of the masts that have been vandalised did not contain the technology and the attacks merely damaged 3G and 4G equipment.

There is hope that the rate of attacks may now be slowing. Network operators are particularly concerned about the safety of their staff, as members of the public have confronted telecoms engineers maintaining critical infrastructure, sometimes filming the encounters to share on social media. Mobile operators and home broadband providers estimate there have been at least 30 such incidents in the last week.

Engineers for O2 have been issued with signs to display in their vans while working. The signs, which read “Key worker, keeping your network running”, are intended to spread the message that communications workers are playing a crucial role during the current crisis.

Social networks will meet the government in the coming days to explain what they can do to stop the spread of baseless claims about 5G, although there is a limited amount that can be done to stop videos and messages spreading on messaging services such as WhatsApp.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/06/at-least-20-uk-phone-masts-vandalised-over-false-5g-coronavirus-claims

[underpants]

1. My daughter after I read the first paragraph "That makes ABSOLUTELY no sense"

So the phone...it's a virus....oh god maybe you should take a few.

[mr_lebowski]

2. Ambivalent whether it's a relief that other countries apparently have just as many stupid fucks

in them as my own ... or terrifying.

[Wounded Bear]

4. I hear you...Stupidity is more contagious than the coronavirus.

Far more.

[EarnestPutz]

3. Some people are so incredibly stupid. This is akin to burning witches because....

....the plague has come to the village. I'm tempted to just give up on some folks and think of some way to use these people to some good purpose. Perhaps suggest that the current viral pandemic is being spread by television preachers and that we should burn down their churches and studios to purify and cleanse ourselves of the infection.

[octoberlib]

5. So, we're not the only country with lunatics.

[mshasta]

6. those are the quaks from Qanon pits of hell

they are the ones started with stupid conspiracy that 5g towers are causing viruses
and now they are going after the emergency services at hospitals saying nurses and doctors are kidnapping children and transporting them to underground tunnels in Los Angeles, New York

fucking evil people ... is repulsive