Due to the heavy controversies around the 5th generation of wireless communications technology linking it to COVID-19. Several 5G masts put up have been set ablaze in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Melling in Merseyside.
Also, Vodafone’s mobile spokesperson confirmed there were also 4 similar incidents at its sites and the one shared with O2 within the last 24 hours. Locations of these sites, however, remain undisclosed.
The spokeswoman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport confirmed the damage on phone masts and molestation of telecoms engineers following the conspiracy theories flying around on the net about the 5G network.
According to her, those perpetuating and committing these criminal acts will face the law in full force. Social Media companies need to also play a major and significant role in this by stopping these controversies from spreading like wildfire on their site/app.
While some platforms have tried to address the controversies, they’ve not taken action to ban the discussion. For example, Pinterest limited its search result for coronavirus but not directly for 5G. Facebook also took down ‘burn baby burn- it’s begun’ video where telecom masts were been destroyed, 6 hours after it was posted and flagged to the company’s press office.
Facebook has originally said the content did not violate its community standards. While Youtube also bans some type of coronavirus videos and reduces the frequency of its algorithms, it still didn’t delete these videos from the platform. Social media platforms are usually reluctant to bring down or curb some contents because the right to freedom of speech and expression is an integral part of their mission.
However, the government is battling the spread of pandemic disease and workers looking after infrastructures are been molested. A trade body that represents a wider mobile industry.
The GSMA admonished social media to remove fake news from their platforms. In response to these controversies flying around, the culture secretary urged social media companies to be more aggressive in reacting to the controversies around the 5G network.
Also, Oliver Dowdens puts plans in place to hold virtual meetings with some tech firms in addressing these controversies. According to scientists, linking 5G to COVID-19 is ‘complete rubbish’ and it is both scientifically and biologically impossible.
