‘Corona? 5G? or both?’: the dynamics of COVID-19/5G conspiracy theories on Facebook
Open accessAbstract
Focussing in detail on one key component of the infodemic surrounding COVID-19, this article traces the dissemination dynamics of rumours that the pandemic outbreak was somehow related to the rollout of 5G mobile telephony technology in Wuhan and around the world. Drawing on a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods including time-series analysis, network analysis and in-depth close reading, our analysis shows the dissemination of the rumour on Facebook from its obscure origins in pre-existing conspiracist groups through greater uptake in more diverse communities to substantial amplification by celebrities, sports stars and media outlets. The in-depth tracing of COVID-related mis- and disinformation across social networks offers important new insights into the dynamics of online information dissemination and points to opportunities to slow and stop the spread of false information, or at least to combat it more directly with accurate counterinformation.
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The 5G-COVID-19 conspiracy theory emerged by merging two existing conspiracy theories: that the pandemic was deliberate and that 5G emissions have adverse health effects.
“More recently, Bruns et al. (2020) demonstrated that the conspiracy theory linking 5G to COVID-19 emerged by merging two existing conspiracy theories -one positing that the pandemic was a deliberate event and the other asserting that 5G emissions have adverse health effects.”
From The Seed of Doubt: Examining the Role of Alternative Social and News Media for the Birth of a Conspiracy Theory (2024) · cites this paper as Bruns et al., 2020
The Discussion and conclusion describes the COVID-19/5G theory as a collision of longstanding beliefs about 5G’s supposed health dangers with the emerging coronavirus crisis. The Introduction mentions a separate theory that the virus was intentionally released, and Phase 2 describes an early story combining a possible bioweapon with 5G. Neither passage establishes that the theory emerged by merging two pre-existing theories, one of which held that the pandemic was deliberate. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Küçükaydın, M. A., Seher, E. S. E. N., & Gürbüzer, S. (2023) · Applied Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1002/acp.4120 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Motta, M., Hwang, J., & Stecula, D. (2024) · Health Communication · doi:10.1080/10410236.2023.2254583 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Marques, F. P. J., Ferracioli, P., Comel, N., & Kniess, A. B. (2023) · Journalism · doi:10.1177/14648849231165579 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
From TikTok Trends to Pandemic Essentials
Meriç, E., & Çakıcı, Z. (2023) · Advances in multimedia and interactive technologies book series · doi:10.4018/979-8-3693-0896-7.ch001 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Australia’s DIGI Code: what can we learn from the EU experience?
Hurcombe, E., & Meese, J. (2022) · Australian Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1080/10361146.2022.2122774 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Self-citationMamalipurath, J. M., & Notley, T. (2022) · Journal of Intercultural Studies · doi:10.1080/07256868.2022.2128088 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Scandurra, C., Pizzo, R., Pinto, L. E., Cafasso, C., Pellegrini, R., Cafaggi, F., D’Anna, O., Muzii, B., Bochicchio, V., & Maldonato, M. N. (2022) · European Journal of Investigation in Health Psychology and Education · doi:10.3390/ejihpe12100109 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bruns, A., Harrington, S., & Hurcombe, E.
- Affiliations
- Queensland University of Technology (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Bruns, Axel
- Venue
- Media International Australia
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2020-08-04
- Volume
- 177
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 12-29
- ISSN
- 1324-5325 (ISSN-L)
- 1329-878X
- 2200-467X
- PMC
- PMC7404088
- OpenAlex
- W3047084175
- Cited by
- 291
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 54 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 72 · 2021: 62 · 2020: 6
- FWCI
- 65.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Media International Australia (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Australian Research Council (DP200101317 Evaluating the Challenge of ‘Fake Ne, FT130100703 Understanding Intermedia Information F)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
- Keywords
- COVID-19 conspiracy theories, 5G, infodemic, disinformation, Facebook, online information dissemination, counter-information
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
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