Britain | Misinformation and mobile networks

How 5G conspiracy theories used covid-19 to go viral

Paranoid Britons are burning down mobile towers

FOR AS LONG as there have been mobile networks, there have been health concerns about the radiation they emit. At first, people worried they would cause cancer. The fifth generation of networks, or 5G, aroused fears of headaches, rashes and severe skin burns.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Dodgy signal”

The business of survival: How covid-19 will reshape global commerce

From the April 11th 2020 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Britain

Stock price information displayed on a board at the London Stock Exchange.

Britain’s brokers are diversifying and becoming less British

London’s depleted stockmarket is forcing them to change

Sculpture by Charles Jencks of DNA double helix Cambridge University.

What a buzzy startup reveals about Britain’s biotech sector

Lots of clever scientists, not enough business nous


Illustration of Kier Starmer facing away next to the stripes of the Union Jack and the stars of the EU flag

Britain’s government lacks a clear Europe policy

It should be more ambitious over getting closer to the EU


The Rachel Reeves theory of growth

The chancellor says it’s her number-one priority. We ask her what that means for Britain