5G is a focus for Russia's propaganda organs.Credit:Bloomberg
In fact,RT has run a stream of favourable coverage of Huawei,the Chinese telco blocked from participating in Australia’s 5G network rollout last year.
RT's story around Huawei,which Russia has tappedto build its own 5G network,is different. The same RT journalists reporting 5G “as a cancer-causing,weather-forecast-jamming” menace also"fawn over"Huawei as a modern provider of 5G technology,said Schafer.
A separate report by a London-based anti-disinformation group charts the spectacular rise of social media accounts trafficking in paranoia for 5G technology,which,according to the best science,is safe for the public.
In the first four and half months of this year,124"Stop 5G"Facebook pages saw their follower count rise from 7000 to nearly 60,000,according to a report by the Global Disinformation Index last month.
Facebook groups on the topic swelled from 0 to 50,000 followers in the same periods,GDI said.
Followers of 600 “Stop-5G” Twitter accounts,meanwhile,tripled to 1.1 million in a single week,while on Instagram 20,000 followers emerged in one week,the London-based group reported.
“[The] networks experienced exponential growth rates in comparison to the average,” said Ben Decker of the GDI,who wrote the report. “This statistic serves as a significant flag for suspicious activity.”
Decker cautioned that the account growth can’t be pinned to any one nation-state without further forensic research,which would involve a level of detailed information difficult to acquire.
5G fears linked to social media and so-called"alternative news"sites,which frequently veer into conspiracy,is evident in the timing in Australia.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency,which regulates standards around nuclear safety,saw a radical increase in public fears on radiation starting at the beginning of the year,starting on social media.
Russian-backed news site RT's warnings of a "5G apocalypse" might not be what they seem.Credit:YouTube
In response,the agency issued a statement to dispel myths on 5G risks in March,which was ingested almost immediately into the swell of disinformation swirling online.
"We saw a lot of inaccurate and misleading information across a number of platforms but primarily on social media,blogs and petitions,"an ARPNSA spokesperson said. A follow-up statement on 5G misinformation by ARPNSA in June was immediately seized on by sceptics of 5G.
One Facebook commenter wrote:"You,ARPNSA,in trying to write us off as disseminators of false information,have grossly underestimated the Australian people. Get ready to be very uncomfortable."
RT was contacted for comment.