The next speaker in this session at the 2026 Association of Internet Researchers conference in Mexico City is Rory Sharp. His focus is on 5G conspiracy theories, which extend well beyond the normative definition of 5G as a communications technology. There is here a general sense that 5G is a compromised form: that it is tainted by technological hype and paranoia.
There is a difference here between conspiracist and conspiratorial ideation, too: 5G conspiracy theories are not conspiratorial. Most of these link back in some way to a post by notorious Twitter account @dril, which in itself commented on a video called ‘500 cigarettes for 5G’. This marks the passage of 5G from a technical standard to a culturally appropriated form, thus moving from the extrastatecraft of standards organisations to active forms that craft a multitude of interdependent relationships and sequences. In the same way, conspiracy theories about 5G moved towards conspiracy panics.
Technologies like 5G are governed by standards organisations, but new technology generations also enable the marketing of new devices that utilise these technologies, leading to such conspiracist exploitation.
