Phone masts across the UK are being damaged amidst baseless conspiracy theories linking 5G to the current COVID-19 pandemic
At least 20 mobile phone masts around the UK are believed to have been vandalised or or burned down since Thursday, according to government and those in the mobile telecoms industry, who are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of baseless conspiracy theories linking 5G networks to COVID-19.
The majority of the arsons and vandalism on these telecoms masts are focused around Liverpool and the West Midlands.
Due to the delayed implementation of 5G in the United Kingdom, many of the masts that have been destroyed or damaged did not even contain the 5G technology and and instead only held 3G and 4G equipment.
This comes as members of the public have been confronting those telecoms engineers and other workers who are maintaining critical infrastructure, in this time of national crisis.
Home broadband providers, as well as mobile operators and estimate there have been at least 30 incidents with members of the public in the past week.
Telelcoms engineers working for O2 have been given with signs to display in their vans while they’re working. The signs read “Key worker, keeping your network running”, and are being used to spread the message that communications workers are playing a crucial role during the current crisis.
Credit: Carl Recine/Reuters
Hopefully precautions, such as these signs and further measures, will deter people from believing baseless theories and harassing those who are working to keep services up and running during such a time of distress.
Social networks companies will be meeting with the government in the next few days to discuss what can be done to prevent the spread of these dangerous claims about 5G, that are putting telecoms workers at risk.
