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According to a recent article in Wired, the initial link between 5G and coronavirus first appeared in a Belgium newspaper, in an interview with Kris Van Kerckhoven, a general practitioner from the Antwerp area. (An interview which has now been removed.)

But it wasnt until the website Info Wars published a video with the title 5G launches in Wuhan weeks before coronavirus outbreak, that the theory began to gain traction.

In the description of its video presentation as with all good conspiracy theories Info Wars tried to link a series of unconnected events:

In this Infowars Special Report, Greg Reese connects the dots between the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a Netflix docuseries pitching vaccines as a solution to outbreaks, Wuhans recent launch of 5G and warnings from experts who say 5G could cause flu-like symptoms, the description read.

A quick look at Google Trends, using any manner of phrases including 5G and coronavirus, shows that it was following the publication of this video that interest surged. And it was amongst far-right groups those most engaged with Info Wars, and the views of its founder, Alex Jones that this new conspiracy began to seed itself.

In a recent survey by HOPE not hate, a political action group set up to counter the increasing popularity of the British far-right group the BNP, 8% of the British public agreed that the rollout of 5G was contributing to the spread of coronavirus, while 19% said they were still unsure. The report also looked at the primary groups which were spreading the coronavirus theory, and found that they also contained anti-Semetic and other racist content.

With 59,000 members and hundreds of posts per day, STOP 5G U.K was the largest and most active UK-based anti-5G group prior to its deletion, the site claims. In amongst the anti-5G discussion were hundreds of posts about unrelated conspiracies, including antisemitic posts about supposed Jewish control of the world and the pro-Trump QAnon hoax.

Those seeking to validate the theory have jumped on a video presentation by Dr. Thomas Cowan, M.D which has now been removed by YouTube for violating its community guidelines where he claimed that, because Africa was not as affected by the coronavirus outbreak, you could see how 5G could be the cause of the virus. However, this is very clearly not the case, with the latest World Health Organization figures showing 17,000 cases, amidst fears it could hit 10 million cases within the next six months.

Fast forward to April, and we have seen a spate of 5G tower attacks across the UK (at least 20, according to a Guardian report earlier this month), telecoms engineers have been both physically and verbally assaulted, and mainstream voices - such as sports personalities and TV presenters have shared the erroneous claims.

But the science is clear: 5G has absolutely nothing to do with the spread of the coronavirus, and poses no threat to human health.

In March 2020, following a period of extensive research, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) deemed 5G to be safe. The research considered other types of effects, such as the potential development of cancer in the human body as a result of exposure to radio waves.

We know parts of the community are concerned about the safety of 5G, and we hope the updated guidelines will help put people at ease," said Dr Eric van Rongen, chairman of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). We find that the scientific evidence for that is not enough to conclude that indeed there is such an effect, concluded van Rongen.

In other tests, the UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, carried out the UKs first safety experiments on 5G base stations and found no identifiable risks since 5G technology was deployed, with radiation levels at tiny fractions of safe limits.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has labelled the spread of these theories an infodemic and a joint statement was recently released by the UKs four mobile network operators, EE, O2, Three, and Vodafone, rubbishing the claims of conspiracy theorists.

And BTs CEO, Marc Allera, went on to state that the theories connecting 5G with Covid-19, most of which are being made in local Facebook groups and on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, as baseless, and he has urged the public to leave the companys phone masts alone.

Phone masts keep us all connected at this extraordinary time, Allera wrote in a recent tweet. And yet we're seeing reports of masts vandalised because of a conspiracy theory linking 5G tech to the spread of Covid-19. This claim is baseless. We must look after the infrastructure and people keeping us in touch.

At a time when keeping our mobile networks online has never been more important, these mast attacks continue to undermine the efforts of mobile network operators around the world, and 5Gradar will continue to support and champion next-generation wireless network technology, in all its forms.

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Alt-right groups started the coronavirus 5G conspiracy. Now it needs to stop - 5Gradar

A wave of planned anti-lockdown demonstrations that have broken out around the country to protest against the efforts of state governments to combat the coronavirus pandemic with business closures and stay-at-home orders have included far-right groups as well as more mainstream Republicans.

While protesters in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and other states claim to speak for ordinary citizens, many are also supported by street-fighting rightwing groups like the Proud Boys, conservative armed militia groups, religious fundamentalists, anti-vaccination groups and other elements of the radical right.

On Wednesday in Lansing, Michigan, a protest put together by two Republican-connected not-for-profits was explicitly devised to cause gridlock in the city, and for a time blocked the entrance to a local hospital.

It was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, which Michigan state corporate filings show has also operated under the name of Michigan Trump Republicans. It was also heavily promoted by the Michigan Freedom Fund, a group linked to the Trump cabinet member Betsy DeVos.

But the protest also attracted far-right protest groups who have been present at pro-Trump and gun rights rallies in Michigan throughout the Trump presidency.

Placards identified the Michigan Proud Boys as participants in the vehicle convoy. Near the state house, local radio interviewed a man who identified himself as Phil Odinson.

In fact the man is Phil Robinson, the prime mover in a group called the Michigan Liberty Militia, whose Facebook page features pictures of firearms, warnings of civil war, celebrations of Norse paganism and memes ultimately sourced from white nationalist groups like Patriot Front.

The pattern of rightwing not-for-profits promoting public protests while still more radical groups use lockdown resistance as a platform for extreme rightwing causes looks set to continue in events advertised in other states over coming days.

In Idaho on Friday, protesters plan to gather at the capitol building in Boise to protest anti-virus restrictions put in place by the Republican governor, Brad Little.

The protest has been heavily promoted by the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF), which counts among its donors dark money funds linked to the Koch brothers such as Donors Capital Fund, and Castle Rock, a foundation seeded with part of the fortune of Adolph Coors, the rightwing beer magnate.

IFF have added their slogan for the event, Disobey Idaho, to stickers which they plan to distribute among the crowd.

The event is also being promoted on a website dedicated to attacking Little for his response to Covid-19. That website was set up by the Idaho businessman, pastor and one-time Republican state senate candidate, Diego Rodriguez.

Rodriguez launched the website at an Easter service held in defiance of the governors orders on Easter Sunday, which was also addressed by Ammon Bundy, the leader of the militia occupation of the Malheur national wildlife refuge in 2016 that become a rallying point for the anti-government right in the US.

Bundy has been holding similar gatherings for weeks in Emmett, Idaho, where he now lives. On Sunday, he repeated his opposition to the Idaho orders, writing on Facebook: We all have a duty to defend what is right and to make sure, that what God has given, man does not take away. Especially that great gift of agency, YES freedom!

Ada county, Idaho, where the capital, Boise, is located, has so far suffered 541 cases of Covid-19 and nine deaths, in a state which has a far worse outbreak than neighboring Oregon, which is 2.4 times more populous.

Nevertheless, the ad for the rally on Rodriguezs website advises, We feel that wearing face masks and gloves is counterproductive to the movement, and should be avoided.

In Washington state, meanwhile, which for now has brought one of the worst outbreaks in the country under a measure of control, a Republican state committeeman, Tyler Miller, has organized a protest at the state capitol on Saturday.

Miller, who is active in the Kitsap county Republican party, was involved in passing a resolution in January in support of representative Matt Shea, who was excluded from the state houses GOP caucus after a report commissioned by house found that he had participated in domestic terrorism.

Hundreds of Facebook users have indicated that they will be attending his Hazardous Liberty rally, and a parallel event in Richland, Washington.

Included in that number are members of the 3% of Washington, a group which has held a series of open-carry rallies in Seattle, featuring speeches from the far-right protest leader, Joey Gibson.

As for Shea, he is speaking on Saturday at an online Saving America conference which will discuss an alleged erosion of rights thats been ramped up in unprecedented ways during this Covid-19 crisis.

He is scheduled to appear alongside the likes of close ally Pastor Ken Peters, who has been holding monthly services outside Spokanes planned parenthood clinic; the actor, Maga personality and congressional candidate Mindy Robinson; and the New Zealand-based anti-communist speaker and author Trevor Loudon.

Other similar events have been advertised for Saturday by an anti-vaccination activist in Oregon, and for Friday by a Boston group with alt-right connections.

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The rightwing groups behind wave of protests against Covid-19 restrictions - The Guardian

There's many right-wing media influencers who have made a name out of being controversial in public.

Kaitlin Bennett, also known as the Kent State Gun Girl, has now been accused of antisemitism after recently leaked messages between her and a group of other young, right wing media figures.

Bennett runs a libertarian media organisation called Liberty Hangout, a kind of alt-right media outlet for young people.

In the screenshots of messages from 2017, first reported by Its Going Down.org, an American news organisation, Kaitlin and other members of the group sent messages where they posted photos of someone else and said that they looked Jewish.

They also criticised other organisations such as Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a right-wing media organisation for young people, and called them Turning Point Israel, and used three sets of parantheses when referring to donors to Turning Point. The three sets of parantheses is an anti semitic dog whistle, used by members of the alt-right to identify people who are Jewish online as targets for harassment.

Another member of the group said that they cant wait to get back to being normal Nazis. Several other interactions in the group include posting photos of people, postingscreenshots mocking kosher meal requests at a TPUSA conference, and drawing a link between Israel and other prominent right wing commentators.

In 2016, Liberty Hangout was the subject of controversy after posting a Twitter poll asking whether the Holocaust had happened as it had been reported, and then doubling down on Holocaust denial after people pointed out what they were doing. Those posts have since been deleted.

Liberty Hangout continues to maintain an active presence on social media, and recently posted in support of Trump declaring himself king after remarks he made at a press conference.

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'Gun Girl' Kaitlin Bennett accused of antisemitism after leaked messages from a group chat surface online - indy100

Many right-wing media outlets from Fox News to white AM talk radio have promoted a great deal of misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, which radio host Rush Limbaugh infamously compared to the common cold. But not only all right-wing media outlets have downplayed the severity of coronavirus: The Bulwark has offered an abundance of quality reporting on the pandemic. And Bulwark journalist Jonathan V. Last, this week, slams some of the bizarre contradictions that have been coming from coronavirus truthers.

Ive been consistently boggled by the loose affiliation of coronavirus-truthers, America Firsters, Catholic rad-trads, and economic boosters who have come together over the last month to insist that: (1) COVID-19 isnt so bad. (2) The real problem is the economy and the lunacy of shutting America down, Last asserts in an article published on Thursday.

Coronavirus truthers, the conservative journalist adds, are demanding that the U.S. economy reopen and insist that social distancing is going too far.

These people all seem to have different reasons for wanting America to reopen, Last explains. The only thing they have in common is that they all from the Taliban Catholics to the alt-right trolls, from the conspiracy cranks to Peter Navarro love them some Trump.

Last adds, however, that coronavirus truthers overlook the fact that Trump himself supports social distancing for the rest of April and that Dr. Anthony Fauci, who many of them hate, is part of Trumps coronavirus task force.

If you have seen someone from the #ReopenAmerica brigade blame Trump, please send me the clip, Last writes. Because as of now, I have literally never seen anyone from that part of the world blame Trump for Americas shutdown. How could that be? Hes the president! Last adds, If Anthony Fauci is the villain in all of this, and Trump hasnt fired him by now, then Trump is at least a dupe and maybe an accomplice.

Moreover, Last writes, the coronavirus truthers are giving Trump a pass for when it comes to social distancing.

On March 16, Trump urged Americans to social distance for 15 days, Last notes. He later extended that timeline. If COVID-19 is really no big deal and if reopening America is the most important thing in the world, then why arent these people flaying Trump every minute of every day and exhorting him to stop this madness? Truly, it is a mystery.

Last is among the conservative journalists who like Jennifer Rubin and Max Boot at the Washington Post or Joe Scarborough at MSNBC certainly cannot be accused of downplaying coronavirus severity. In a separate Bulwark article published on April 15, Last slammed the coronavirus truthers who ignorantly claim that its no worse than the flu.

Pointing to a scientific graph that compared flu and COVID-19 data, Last stressed that COVID-19 is not only deadlier it is also easier to spread.

Coronavirus is so much more dangerous to the American people than the flu that anyone who suggests equivalency is either deliberately lying, or does not know what they are talking about, Last wrote.

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then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has cut advertising rates in half, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism and were investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnstons DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. Weve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. Weve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. You wont find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.

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Its a mystery: Conservative wonders why coronavirus truthers never blame Trump for anything - Raw Story

Mindy* listened to the rabbi preside over her uncles funeral on Zoom. The virtual event has become commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still felt surreal to her. Her father and uncle Ralph had been unusually close their dad died when they were young, and Ralph helped raise his little brother. The rabbi was talking about the siblings relationship when the screen went white, and black letters started to appear. The scribbles looked like the handwriting of a child. Thats weird, Mindy thought. Someones kid must have taken over the screen. The letters began forming words: Die Jew.

Mindy was stunned. She realized she and her family were being Zoombombed something shed only read about in the news. A white supremacist had snuck into the call to spread hatred and anti-Semitism. It was like a punch to the gut, Mindy says. She jumped up, trying to cover the screen with her body so her daughters, ages 12, 13, and 16, wouldnt see. But it was already too late. Large swastikas began to appear, followed by porn and more profanity. The 13-year-old burst into tears.

The incident Mindy and her family experienced is part of a wave of Zoom attacks targeting the Jewish community. As Americans stay quarantined due to the pandemic, events that used to take place in person town halls, weddings, and funerals are now streaming on the videoconferencing platform. The trend has brought with it a new form of digital harassment: Zoombombing, where trolls enter meetings uninvited and stream disruptive or offensive content.

Online bigotry didnt start with the quarantine. Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism, says, weve been dealing with issues with hate online well before coronavirus. Anti-Semitism in particular has long been a part of internet culture. Its just recently migrated to Zoom.

The videoconferencing platform has moved to quickly fix the glaring security issues that made such attacks possible. On April 5th, Zoom rolled out meeting passwords and waiting rooms as the new default setting for all users. CEO Eric Yuan also announced the company would temporarily stop developing new features and shift its engineering resources to focus on privacy and security.

But the Anti-Defamation League says this short-term emphasis on safety might not be enough. Extremists wont stop. They never do, says Segal. Zoom cant stop looking at new ways theyll be exploited.

Zoom was not designed to be social. Its a corporate business tool that suddenly became the pandemics go-to communications platform. Yuan probably didnt anticipate his software turning into a concert hall, much less a school or a therapy office. Then the novel coronavirus started to spread, shutting down much of the worlds economy. From December 2019 to April 2020, Zoom went from 10 million users a day to more than 200 million. A product that used to be utilized by business professionals became a lifeline for students, families, and religious communities.

Yuan was as surprised as anyone. I never thought that overnight the whole world would be using Zoom, he said in an interview with Bloomberg. Unfortunately, we did not prepare well, mentally and strategy-wise. The lack of preparation was underlined by the fact that most Zoom attacks werent the result of sophisticated hacking. People posted meeting links publicly. White supremacists found them. Chaos ensued.

Some of the attackers are well known members of the alt-right. On March 24th, Andrew Alan Escher Auernheimer, known by his pseudonym weev, interrupted a class at a Jewish community center to go on an anti-Semitic rant. But others were just trying to cause mayhem. To the victims, the distinction didnt matter. They were shocked and traumatized either way.

A wave of bad press hit in March. TechCrunch broke the story about Zoombombing. Vice discovered Zoom was leaking peoples email addresses to strangers. The Intercept realized the company had been claiming its meetings were end-to-end encrypted (they were not). An engineer found that Zoom was evading macOS administrator controls and installing its app without final consent.

Yuan argued this was all a function of an enterprise product becoming a consumer tool overnight. We did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home, he wrote in a blog.

This was only partially true. As Casey Newton wrote in The Verge, the company purposefully designed its product to be as consumer-friendly as possible. Asking users to enter a password or download an app before joining a meeting creates friction. Zoom wanted to be frictionless. Consumer-grade ease of use is essential for a tool like Zoom, wrote Newton, but so is enterprise-grade security.

This is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when fear and anxiety are running high and people are isolated from one another. Theres this desperation for community and safe spaces at a time when safety seems hard to attain, says Segal. When somebody comes into that space and abuses that, it shatters the normalcy and connection. Hate is bad always, but when you add that to the current environment and the fear and anxiety, its an extra notch problematic.

Segal added that the issues Zoom is experiencing should serve as a warning for the rest of the tech community. As people continue to spend more time online, extremists are sure to find new ways to spread hate and fear. I hope that we learn our lessons from Zoom so the problems arent repeated on other platforms, he says.

For Mindy and her family, the Zoombombing incident shattered their ability to find closure at her uncles funeral. Even worse, it traumatized her children. That was so ugly, her daughter said in the wake of the attack. Why do they hate us? Do they know where we live? Mindy didnt know what to say. For my kids, it was a shock, she says. Theyve never been subjected to that before. Im not quite sure they have ever felt what its like to be the subject of such hatred.

In a statement emailed to The Verge, a company spokesperson for Zoom said: We have been deeply upset by increasing reports of harassment on our platform and strongly condemn such behavior. We are listening to our community of users to help us evolve our approach and help our users guard against these attacks.

The ADL now has a running list of anti-Semetic Zoombombing incidents to track the ongoing attacks. On March 27th, a synagogue in Maryland reported that virtual shabbat services were interrupted by someone yelling Heil Hitler and Jewish scum. One of the Zoombombers had a swastika tattoo and exposed his genitals to the group. On March 30th, a Jewish nonprofit was hosting a call with over 100 people when a Zoombomber started yelling death to the Jews and Heil Hitler. Then on April 1st, a weekly Talmud class led by a rabbi near Detroit was interrupted by someone who pointed a rifle at the camera.

Extremists never miss an opportunity to leverage a crisis for their hatred, says Segal. Theyre now trying to bring it into our homes.

*The Verge agreed to only use Mindys first name to protect the identity of her family.

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White supremacists are targeting Jewish groups on Zoom - The Verge