Are you ready for the “5G apocalypse”?

Russian disinformation operatives in recent months have been pushing scare stories about 5G networks. RT America, formerly known as Russia Today, has claimed that 5G signals “might kill you” and constitute an “experiment on humanity.”

The U.S.-based Russian TV network and other Russian sources have repeatedly proposed, without scientific support, that the technology causes brain cancer and various other diseases.

The reason: possibly to undercut public support in the U.S. for the game-changing technological upgrade.

“Experts suggested that the [RT America] broadcasts are an attempt to undermine U.S. enthusiasm for the wireless technology, which could well give nations who adopt it first a competitive edge over international rivals,” Britain’s The Telegraph reports.

5G technology, the New York Times writes, “represent[s] the vanguard of a wireless era rich in interconnected cars, factories and cities.”

Now Fox News’ popular “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has weighed in on the 5G scare, causing social-media denizens this week to attack Carlson for parroting Russian propaganda. Various pundits on Twitter, including author and former FBI counterterrorism expert Clint Watts, discussed “the birth of a conspiracy” and passed around images from Carlson’s show that featured blood-pressure-spiking chyrons like “5G Is Coming: Should We Be Worried?” and “Potential Negative Health Effects of 5G.”

This has literally jumped from Russian propagandists straight to Fox News cc @selectedwisdom https://t.co/MVBKRqw4BK — Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) May 22, 2019

https://t.co/3xeR35juCj



Yeah, it’s hilarious to watch literal Russian propaganda, as in — literally presented and pushed by kremlin propaganda outlets — get air play in the US. — thaddeus e. grugq (@thegrugq) May 22, 2019

What is going on?!?? This is insane, straight up Russian disinfo designed to harm us economically. Utter nonsense being repeated by @TuckerCarlson https://t.co/FUGFWSyfYx — Clint Watts (@selectedwisdom) May 22, 2019

“Are 5G networks safe?” Carlson said on the program this week. “Physically, medically safe. There’s some debate about that.”

He put the question of 5G’s safety to Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel, who gave a relatively straightforward response.

“As far as we know, yes, but we don’t know the long-term risks,” Siegel said. “Coming to a streetlamp near you, right? Three hundred thousand of them are going to sprout up in the United States. And preliminary studies from a national toxicology program looking at [previous-generation technology] 2G and 3G look like it can possibly cause heart tumors and brain tumors in rats – not people, mind you, rats – but change cells in the brain and cause ringing in the ears. So we don’t know the long-term health risks.”

Siegel added that “Russian TV is trying to scare us so I don’t want to come out and say there are definite health risks.”

Watch the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” segment.

The New York Times, in a report last week, is more definitive than Siegel about the technology’s safety.

“Over the years, plenty of careful science has scrutinized wireless technology for potential health risks,” the newspaper wrote. “Virtually all the data contradict the dire alarms, according to public officials, including those at the World Health Organization.” The report pointed out that 5G is widely believed to be safer than previous generations of wireless technology because the higher radio frequency will not penetrate the human body nearly as much.

Russia, while ratcheting up health fears about the technology in the rest of the world, is reportedly moving forward aggressively with its own 5G network.

Ryan Fox, the CEO of the disinformation-monitoring firm New Knowledge, says Russia’s 5G propaganda amounts to “economic warfare.”

-- Douglas Perry

@douglasmperry

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