Twitter has started to label some tweets that mention both 5G and coronavirus, most with the phrase ‘5G corona’ in them. While it’s good the company is trying to stop the spread of misinformation about the falsehood of 5G causing the virus, the rule has turned up some worryingly wrong opinions (via Business Insider):
Clicking on the fact check label takes you to a page titled “No, 5G isn’t causing coronavirus” that presents you with verified journalistic sources.
It’s likely that this fact checking will also go through a small spike of people tweeting the phrase on purpose to get their tweets tagged, like this user may well have done:
If anything, the move highlights just how satirical the actually serious claims that 5G causes the coronavirus appear in the first place. YouTube started removing conspiratorial videos on the subject back in April and some health officials have had to publically denounce the links after people started burning down phone masts around the world.
We know it’s a stressful time and there is a lot of misinformation out there, but please don’t burn down a phone mast. 5G doesn’t cause coronavirus, and aside from committing a crime you’ll ruin a whole area’s mobile communications, something that’s doubly important during the time of a pandemic.
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.