![]() ![]() The first time was after I emerged from a screening of Mandy, a very unhinged film starring Nicolas Cage. It was unsurprising to me, because I’ve already experienced plenty of this type of abuse myself over the last year. The last of these includes an incitement to violence against the prime minister. I’m a member of nearly all the private Anti-5G groups on Facebook – and the response to the fires is both unsurprising, and abhorrent. Introduce paranoia around Covid-19, and that’s when the towers start burning. But the paranoia around 5G has been growing for years. Reading the headlines, it would be easy to think this was a sudden, bizarre outburst of crime. A disruption to mobile connectivity can put New Zealanders at risk by cutting off access to critical services like 111,” pleaded Mark Beder from Spark. “Attacks on critical infrastructure are inexcusable at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic. ![]() “These attacks are infuriating and can have real connectivity impacts for New Zealanders – meaning people could have reduced mobile phone and internet coverage in an area with a damaged cell site, which is a real issue particularly in South Auckland,” said Vodafone’s Tony Baird. Vodafone, Spark and 2Degrees were on board with the messaging, which isn’t surprising seeing as their property was going up in flames. The attacks led the New Zealand Telecommunications Forum to put out a press release last week, asking for Kiwis to be extra vigilant in reporting suspicious behaviour. This comes off the back of a string of arson attacks over the last six weeks: 10 in Auckland, and another four in Wellington and Northland. Over the weekend we saw another suspicious fire at a cellphone tower, this time in South Auckland. David Farrier looks at the way two conspiracy theories have merged into something very nasty online and into real world violence. ![]()
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