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Next search: 5G myths debunked: answering the Internet's questions
‘Can 5G be weaponised?’
There are many things 5G may, or may not, enable in the medium to long term. As Mavrakis from ABI Research says: “For all the talk of driverless cars, which will carry most of their computing onboard and don’t really have much to do with 5G at all, the real advantages of 5G are in ideas yet to be thought of.”
But weaponising 5G? Zapping you from a cell tower with some of that high-frequency radiation? “No, I really don’t think there’s anything in that,” says Mavrakis. “With every new tech there’s a raft of new concerns about the impact and use of electromagnetic radiation for some people, as there was with 4G too.”
But it’s easy to understand where the idea comes from as 5G employs sub-millimeter and millimeter waves and, well, so does a prototype device from the US military used for crowd control. Its Active Denial System emits millimeter waves as a beam that penetrates the very top layer of skin and produces a deeply unpleasant heating sensation. It’s not enough to hurt exactly and there’s no lasting damage, but it’s enough to make you want to get out of the way of the beam.
Such a thing might play to those who claim the health effects of 5G waves remain untested, but this is a long way from saying 5G can itself be used as a weapon. Unless you count throwing your phone at someone.