Click-Sick: Part 2 The hidden political forces pushing pandemic conspiracies

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Kathrin’s friends have been sending her a range of wild theories – many of them linking 5G technology to the novel coronavirus.

As the messages kept rolling in, Kathrin has become frightened for her family, and about the disturbing parallels to her childhood in East Germany, living under a regime that relied on propaganda.

History shows us that health misinformation can be manipulated by those with powerful political agendas. In this episode, Part 2 of Click-Sick, ABC technology reporter Ariel Bogle (@arielbogle) examines how conspiracies blend, and how they can serve the geopolitical interests of nation states with nefarious intentions.
In Part 1 of Click-Sick, we find out why sharing information about COVID-19 online isn’t always caring.

Click-Sick, a three-part Science Friction series from ABC Science and ABC Radio National, hunts down the sources, considers the harms, and shines a spotlight on fake health claims.

Hear how our closest relationships are tested; the wild history of how nation states exploit pandemics in geopolitical power play; and how wellness … can sometimes make you sick.

Guests:
Kathrin

Dr John Cook
Research Assistant Professor at Center for Climate Change Communication
George Mason University

Renee DiResta
Technical Research Manager
Stanford Internet Observatory

Dr Douglas Selvage
Historian
Humboldt University in Berlin

Further information:

COVID-19 and the 5G Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Twitter Data (Wasim Ahmed, Josep Vidal-Alaball, Joseph Downing, Francesc Lopez Segui, Journal of Medical Internet Research, May 2020)

Thanks to Wasim Ahmed, Digital Business Lecturer, University of Newcastle, for helping us with our research for this program.

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