Flaherty, Eoin and Sturm, Tristan and Farries, Elizabeth
(2022)
The conspiracy of Covid-19 and 5G: Spatial analysis fallacies in the age of data democratization.
Social Science & Medicine, 293.
p. 114546.
ISSN 0277-9536
Abstract
In a context of mistrust in public health institutions and practices, anti-COVID/vaccination protests and the
storming of Congress have illustrated that conspiracy theories are real and immanent threat to health and
wellbeing, democracy, and public understanding of science. One manifestation of this is the suggested correla-
tion of COVID-19 with 5G mobile technology. Throughout 2020, this alleged correlation was promoted and
distributed widely on social media, often in the form of maps overlaying the distribution of COVID-19 cases with
the instillation of 5G towers. These conspiracy theories are not fringe phenomena, and they form part of a
growing repertoire for conspiracist activist groups with capacities for organised violence. In this paper, we
outline how spatial data have been co-opted, and spatial correlations asserted by conspiracy theorists. We
consider the basis of their claims of causal association with reference to three key areas of geographical
explanation: (1) how social properties are constituted and how they exert complex causal forces, (2) the pitfalls
of correlation with spatial and ecological data, and (3) the challenges of specifying and interpreting causal effects
with spatial data. For each, we consider the unique theoretical and technical challenges involved in specifying
meaningful correlation, and how their discarding facilitates conspiracist attribution. In doing so, we offer a basis
both to interrogate conspiracists’ uses and interpretation of data from elementary principles and offer some
cautionary notes on the potential for their future misuse in an age of data democratization. Finally, this paper
contributes to work on the basis of conspiracy theories in general, by asserting how – absent an appreciation of
these key methodological principles – spatial health data may be especially prone to co-option by conspiracist
groups.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Conspiracy theories;
Spatial data;
Health geography;
Public data;
COVID-19;
5G; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
| Item ID: |
17059 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114546 |
| Depositing User: |
Eoin Flaherty
|
| Date Deposited: |
23 Mar 2023 11:30 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Social Science & Medicine |
| Publisher: |
Elsevier |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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