Infodemic 5G
A DMI Winter School 2021 project
Team Members
Niels ten Oever, Maxigas (coordinators)
Bryan Steffen, Eleni Maragkou, Emile Provendier, Emma Breuer, Giovanni Lombardi, Giulio Valentini, Jasper van der Heide, Jörn Preuß, Roxana Varvara Boboc, Selin Ashaghimina, Sylvain Mignot, Veronica Fanzio, Veronica Moretti
Contents
Summary of Key Findings
The main takeaways from this project are the differences in how 5G is
discussed on mainstream and alternative platforms (Instagram vs. Parler)
and the connection to the way 5G is represented by vendors and network
operators. The key finding is that the vendors and network operators
discuss 5G in vague terms, failing to create a concrete and meaningful
imaginary that people can draw from. In this context, users from various
platforms associated 5G with several issues, which vary across
mainstream and alternative platforms. The main takeaway in this regard
is that the discourse on Instagram is much more fragmented and lacks
cohesion, leading to several clusters of themes with little to no
connections between them. On the other hand, Parler hosts a much more
coherent approach, where the discussion is much more concrete and
related to politics and corporate figures. The project explores these
various critical interpretative frames to gain a sense of how 5G is
conceived by various communities versus how it is presented by
manufacturers.
1. Introduction
Our study aims to describe a set of critical interpretative frames about
5G pertaining to different actors and which circulate among several
social media platforms: Instagram and Parler. The analysis is concerned
with obtaining a deeper understanding of how these frames compare among
mainstream and alternative platforms. Moreover, the project seeks to
uncover how the corporate actors such as equipment vendors and network
operators involved with 5G provide frames of understanding related to
their product.
One reason why these critical interpretative frames are relevant is
because 5G deployment involves both a new massive infrastructural
project, as well as a new set of standards which are still yet to be
finished. In the absence of a comprehensive imaginary of 5G, it is up to
vendors/manufacturers and people to develop frames of understanding of a
new object. Another specific characteristic of 5G is that it
transgresses all of the 7 levels of the Open Systems Interconnection
model (application, presentation, session, transport, network, data
link, physical); what this creates is a form of concentration of power
among the telecom market and is in opposition with the ethos modularity
and decentralization of the internet. Given that "changes to the
globalising world are being written, not in the language of law and
diplomacy, but rather in the language of infrastructure" (Easterling,
2014), 5G poses new, underexplored issues on several planes --
governance of the information society and imaginaries that emerge on
different media.
The lack of information on what 5G is and what it does led to the
development of alternative forms of understanding and conspiracies
around it. The theoretical concepts which guided our work were new
conspiracism_ (Muirhead and Rosenblum, 2019), referring to "conspiracy
without the theory". It explains conspiracies in terms of political
theory. What seems to emerge from this process are "conspiracy
fragments" as opposed to theories. We argue that in the absence of a
clear imaginary from the corporate perspective, communities present on
different social media platforms develop their own understandings. As we
show in our report, these critical interpretative frames differ
according to the platform user communities. We also contribute to the
research done in the area of COVID-19 and 5G conspiracy theories on
social media (Bruns et al., 2020, Ahmed et al., 2020), both in terms of
key findings as well as developing methodological approaches for
mainstream, as well as alternative platforms.
Therefore, given the considerations on 5G and departing points for the
conceptual journey of the project, we explored the textual and visual
frames on Instagram and Parler; we looked both at the user presence and
activity, as well as analyzing the corporate marketing communication
from Instagram and YouTube as a control group.
2. Datasets
A dataset of metadata of Instagram was provided by the larger Infodemic
research project as a starting point for this research effort. This was
scraped from Instagram using the Python library
Instaloader and
include data recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. The dataset
was created by querying for words related to the infodemic, including
"corona" and 5G related keywords. Additionally, posts by known
conspiracy theorists were gathered. Then this dataset was further
trimmed down with this restriction _(5g OR fiveg) AND (corona OR virus
OR covid)_. Later, using Instaloader, a non-random sample of these
images were also downloaded for visual analysis.
A distinct dataset of the social network
Parler was
scraped during the Winter school. In order to do so we first checked what
hashtags related to 5G had the co-occurrences. Then we scraped a data set per
hashtag, as the Parler search engine does not allow multiple hashtag search. The
tool used was
Parlance. Then
these datasets were merged, and finally standardised to be compatible with the
Instagram dataset in order to allow for meaningful comparisons.
Additionally, for comparison in the timeseries,
a dataset of COVID-19 cases per day per country maintained by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control was
used. The historical dataset contained cases until the 14th of December. We
used data on cases in the USA exclusively, as this correlated more with the
Instagram time series.
We also looked at images in the Instagram and Parler datasets,
downloaded them and attempted some visual analysis. We downloaded the
images from Parler with a command similar to the following Bash one
liner:
grep -Po '\"https://(.?\*)\[jpg\|png\]/'\" parler.csv \| parallel -t
\--bar \--joblog job.log wget {}
In order to understand the corporate perspective we gathered a set of
different datasets from various platforms:
a. Websites of a list of 5G related companies. Used a
custom script for this.
b. YouTube video thumbnails of videos with 5G in the title, gathered with
YouTube Data Tools.
c. Content of Instagram accounts captured with
Instaloader.
3. Questions
Overall research question
What are the critical interpretative frames of 5G on social media platforms, especially regards to the infrastructural claims of 5G conspiracy theorists?
Sub-questions
- What are the main motifs, symbols and epistemic phrases that epitomise 5G across platforms? Can we establish sub-categories and clusters of 5G conspiracy theories on social media? How are these structured internally?
- How does 5G discourse evolve over time and space?
- Do 5G conspiracies mirror or overlap with imaginaries of 5G providers?
4. Methodology
Discourse analysis Instagram vs. Parler
Textual analysis for the instagram and Parler discourse
For the Instagram dataset, we had to reduce the size of the data. We
chose to remove all the posts that had less than 100 upvotes, leaving us
with around 3000 posts. From there, we used the text analysis platform
Cortext to extract a list of the most recurrent terms. We then created a
co-occurrences network to see which words are frequently used together.
We did the same for Parler except we did not filter it in the beginning.
Input data was the 3000 dataset for the Instagram visualisation and the
Parler dataset. When proceeding to the terms extraction, the software
makes a cleaning of the text removing all types of punctuation. It also
provides a lemmatization of the words to ensure that some words won't
appear multiple times (so for example, the plurals of words will be
considered as singular to really count occurrences). Once the terms
extraction is made, we use the "Network analysis" option and tell the
software to use the terms list we just created. To have a more readable
network, we limited the appearing nodes to 75. We verified that it was
the best number, since it
(a) eliminates some useless (or
difficult-to-explain) clusters, and
(b) keeps the most relevant clusters
of words on the visualisation.
Narratives
Based on two datasets with the key users and posts, we created two
sub-datasets of 200 most-liked Instagram posts and 200 most-liked Parler
posts. These liked posts were picked to gather some preliminary
insights.
During the coding process we used colors for the body text. The whole
dataset was imported into the Nvivo software as a new file. Then we
followed a three-step procedure:
- First step (in vivo categories): coding line by line (both text and hashtags).
- Second step (category clusters): creation of child-nodes to simplify the analysis.
- Third step (abstraction): creation of new core categories derived from the code-aggregation.
From the first round of coding, 42 codes (topics addressed) emerged. The
Parler data-set was analyzed following the same procedure of the
Instagram one. The coding process used the 42 codes. We added 5 codes
more.
User analysis
As both platforms afford the use of hashtags, quantitative analysis of
the 200 most-liked videos per platform of the data sets was done through
co-hashtag network visualization in Gephi in order to first, situate 5G
within the landscape of infodemic-related hashtags, second, identify
possible clusters of hashtag co-occurrence, and finally, compare the
network structures between Instagram and Parler data sets.
To gain further insights into the different user groups and
conspiratorial tribes sharing content related to 5G conspiracy theories
on Instagram and Parler, the initial datasets were reduced to the 200
most-liked videos per platform. In the first round of coding, the
occurring users were sorted by user group through qualitative analysis
of their feeds and close reading of their biographies.
For the Instagram sub-dataset, the labels "ordinary user" (i.e. personal
accounts predominantly posing content that was unrelated to conspiracy
theories), "conspiracy theorist", "deleted", were used. For Parler, the
label "ordinary user" showed no results, so it was not further
considered in the analysis. However, the label "conspiracy theorist" was
also used, as well as the platform-specific label "independent media",
for non-conspiracy-related alternative media accounts, was used. After
the general user coding, the conspiracy theory accounts within the
respective sub-datasets were further categorized by *tribal
affiliation*. The Instagram dataset was sorted into the conspiracy
tribes "Trumpist", "far-right, "alt-health", "alternative news",
"Anti-Establishment" "anti-bill-gates", for accounts specifically
centering on Bill Gates conspiracies, "religious fundamentatlist", and
"other", for accounts sharing conspiratorial content that could not
clearly be categorized as belonging to one specific tribe. For Parler,
the following conspiracy theory tribe labels were used: "Far-right",
"Trumpist", "Anti-Establishment", "alt-health", "alternative news",
"communist", "political union".
Time series and locations
Based on the Instagram, Parler and Covid datasets we created a time
series in 2020. Besides these initial datasets, we looked at 5G coverage
according to the
Ookla 5G map. From a sample of
archived version
of this webpage on the Internet Archive's Way Back Machine, we retrieved
some historic numbers of 5G coverage.
Furthermore, we attempted to look at the locations of posts, and whether
these matched events such as cell tower burnings. A first attempt was
done by using Named Entity Recognition on the body of the Instagram
posts in the initial dataset. This yielded too many false positives and
was dropped. A second attempt tried to gather location data from the
metadata in the post, information that was not included in the initial
dataset. For this instaloader was used again. However, the rate limits
of this method of scraping prevented the gathering of all the images. In
the end 1500 images were scraped in the timeframe of the
WinterSchool,
75 of which contained location data.This was too little for analysis and
was therefore dropped. A third attempt checked whether cities from a
list of cities
appeared in the body of posts. This again yielded a lot false positives,
and was therefore changed to a regular expression search
"\\b{city}\\b"
where
{city}
again was a city from the list of
cities. This yielded less false positives. Again, due to time
constraints, it was not possible to create a world map (over time), and
we instead focused on one city that appeared often: London. Future
research could make use of location data found in the Parler archive
that was gathered and published in the last days of the Winter School in
the immediate aftermath of the storming of the US Capitol.
Vendors
Textual analysis of manufacturers' websites and instagram posts.
We close-read a hand-picked selection of web pages dedicated to 5G on
the websites of companies. The list of companies was compiled by Niels
who has done research into 5G governance, so he has a good overview of
the relevant stakeholders. We annotated meaningful terms, based on
quantitative appearance and visual significance. We compiled a list of
available websites, divided between Equipment Vendors and Network
Operators. We scraped through Lippmannian Device separately, putting a
set of keywords chosen in the previous step, and setting the "number of
results per query" at 10. The operation yielded a CSV file and a word
cloud. We turned the textual body from the CSV into a word tree, one for
each list and one all together.
Methodology YouTube channels
We found providers' YouTube channels (if available) and scraped their
video lists using YouTube Data Tools, and collected video metadata. For
each provider, video titles were filtered for mentions of 5G. A
collective dataset of 1222 videos was then compiled. Finally, the video
titles and thumbnails were analysed, by creating a word cloud (on
https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/) and an image wall (with
ImageSorter), respectively.
Methodology Instagram accounts
Based on a list with the key vendors and network operators, three
companies from each category were picked to get preliminary insights
into the representation of 5G by companies. The six companies which were
picked for the preliminary analysis: At&t, Cisco, Nokia, Verizon,
Vodafone and Ericsson.
Using the Instaloader Python module, we started to scrape all the posts
from these six Instagram accounts, including pictures and their
descriptions. Following from this, a second script was used to give us
all posts which include the hashtag 5G in their description.
Methodology of getting images from websites of vendors and operators about 5G
We queried the Qwant search engine for images located under the domain
of these companies (like cisco.com for Cisco) and downloaded the first
100 hits with a
script.
In order to avoid rate limitation on requests to the search engine, we
tunnelled the connections through Tor, rotating the identity for each
request (taking advantage of the NEWNYM signal in the Tor protocol, as
explained in the script comments).
5. Findings
This section consists of an exploration of the datasets according to the
methodological paths previously explained. The aim of this section is to provide
an in-depth understanding of how the communities on the two platforms discuss
5G, how the discourse fluctuates across time, as well as how vendors and network
operators provide an imaginary of 5G on their websites, Instagram and YouTube
profiles.
Discourse analysis Instagram versus Parler
Instagram Co-hashtag network
In the network visualization of the top 200 most-liked posts on
Instagram (Figure 1) we can observe some fairly centrally located nodes
of hashtags such as "5G", "COVID", "newworldorder", "plandemic",
"QAnon", "Religion" that do not seem to belong to any particular
clusters. However, on the edges of the network, one can see a variety of
smaller clusters. Examining these smaller clusters, a notable
observation that can be made is that they do not seem to represent a
single "tribe" of conspiracy theories but they consist of various
iterations of the big, central nodes. In the case of 5G-related hashtags
one can find hashtags such as "5gbeastsystem", "noto5g", "fuck5g",
"stop5grollout" within different clusters spread throughout the whole
network. This indicates that while there seem to be groups with slightly
different interpretative frames around different conspiracy-related
objects, from an aspect of hashtag-use, they seem to be similar in the
issues and perspectives they express without being uniformly coherent.
Figure 1: Co-hashtag network visualization of top 200 most engaged posts on Instagram (Click to enlarge)
Parler Co-Hashtag network
In the network visualization on the top 200 most-liked posts on Parler
(Figure 2), there are a small number of large clusters with 5G as the
central node of the network. The cluster in the upper part of the
network consists of a number of Trump-related hashtags such as "trump
2020", "maga", "alexjones" that are situated quite closely to the
central 5G node as well as various covid-conspiracy-related terms such
as "covidhoax", "cdc" and "agenda21". The lower clusters consist of a
collection of deep vernacular web terms from various conspiracy
theories, most of them being less related to 5G and COVID, such as
"frazzledrip", "wwg1wgaworldwide", "pizzagateisreal" or "qdrops". Based
on the clustering structure of Parler co-hashtag usage, there seems to
be a more deliberate and/or uniform approach to discourse around
conspiracy topics. Furthermore, the large amount of QAnon-related but
not COVID- or 5G-related hashtags could indicate that discourse on
Parler is not focused on 5G as the center issue.
Figure 2: Co-hashtag network visualization of top 200 most engaged posts on Parler (Click to enlarge)
Comparing the network visualizations of Instagram and Parler, we found
that 5G-related discourse on Instagram is considerably more dispersed
into numerous, smaller clusters. The variety of hashtags that are
slightly changed iterations on the 5G hashtag could indicate stronger
engagement with 5G at the center of conspiracy-related discourses. In
contrast, the hashtag clusters on Parler are large and considerably
lower in number, showing a high amount of deep vernacular terms less
related to 5G and COVID, indicating that conspiracy discourse on Parler
is less centered around 5G.
Global vision about how conspiracy theories are structured in Instagram using the whole dataset
Figure 3: Co-occurences network of the main Instagram dataset featuring the most words (including unigrams, bigrams and trigrams, click to enlarge)
When analysing the overall Instagram dataset, one of the main findings is that there seem to be different levels of conspiracy theories, but one central thematic, that is
issues and matter about "human" in general:
- Human Rights (surveillance and consent): Orange/Yellow Cluster
- Human Health (health concerns about electro-magnetic frequencies, maybe linked with the idea of a virus): Blue Cluster
- Human Governance (political agendas, corporates control): Red Cluster.
What is evoked is a feeling of loss of power by the people regarding the
"hidden world/hidden elite". A need to "take the power back" from
those elites (orange cluster, words like "fightforhumanity",
"wakeup") can also be identified. Interesting thing about this graph
is that we could reduce it to two main clusters: One (in the upper side)
about elite, manipulation, need to wake up and another (down) about
covid, radiation and 5G. The words which connect theme 2 thematics are:
depopulation and new world order. What we can say about the imaginary is
that the central conspiracy which sums up all the others is the
existence of a new world order that wants to regulate the population.
What is the content of the critical interpretative frames on Instagram and Parler?
We first tried to identify some global thematics in the Instagram and
Parler post using co-occurrences analysis. One of the original
hypotheses was that the discourse on the platforms and the imaginary
between what we find in text and image was not totally logical (for
instance, catastrophic and apocalyptic terms in discourse but very
ironic pictures like memes, etc.). This is the kind of thing we can find
one platforms like Facebook or Reddit (for example the meme wars of
Trump supporters during 2016's election).
Instagram discourse
Figure 4: Co-occurences network of the words used by Instagram users on the 3000 post dataset (Click to enlarge)
We can identify six main clusters:
- First (dark yellow) one is very satanic and matrix. New world order that dominates people.
- Second (orange) cluster is unclear, talks about legitimate treatments, Bill Gates and manipulation through the vaccine.
- Third (dark green) seems to make a link between virus and 5G.
- Fourth (blue) is clearly about radiation of 5G and the harmful effects.
- Fifth (light green) is concerns about fair use and the rights of the citizens.
- Last one (light yellow) is not clear but the main idea seems to revolve around covid being a hoax.
Parler discourse
Figure 5: Co-occurences Network of the words used by Parler users (Click to enlarge)
Again, we can identify six main clusters:
- The first (red) cluster is about illuminati and men-shaped lizards.
- The second one is related to Trump, US and MAGA and contains a lot of US symbols.
- Third talks about anti-Christ but also UFOs and a bit about religion.
- Fourth is the technical aspects of 5G, quantum computers, cybersecurity. It is not related to any other cluster which might mean that there is also a "serious" discussion about 5G without necessarily linking it to conspiracy.
- Fifth is about the UK and mind control.
- Sixth is about a link between covid and 5G, + UK and Huawei. Basically a conspiracy that the UK worked with Huawei to create covid.
Crossing image and text imaginary
Figure 6: Co-occurences Network of Instagram posts featuring corresponding image imaginary of the users (Click to enlarge)
Figure 7: Co-occurences Network of Instagram posts featuring corresponding image imaginary of the users (Click to enlarge)
We found that most of the time, the pictures really match the idea of
catastrophe and "need to wake up" discourse. The pictures seem a lot
serious and with the aim of "informing" people about what is happening.
The objective was to check how the visual and textual imaginaries
compare on these platforms. The first visual represents (figure 6) a
cross-analysis of the image and text used in Instagram. It is not always
easy to clearly distinguish between the conspiracies evoked, but we see
3 main themes: Satanic/Illuminati/Matrix references (Yellow);
Manipulation through vaccines mostly led by Bill Gates (Orange, top
right); and the dangers of 5G (blue clusters). In the middle of this
there is a cluster where 5G and COVID-19 converge.
Instagram's dataset (1800 images) is composed of over half of images
containing text (mostly on a white background but also on black
backgrounds). Another specific characteristic of the dataset was the
presence of memes. Among the personalities discussed, Bill Gates and
David Icke were by far the most present ones. The main theory propagated
within this dataset is that the pandemic was instrumented by Bill Gates
and has to do with a "plandemic" and a "new world order". There is
also a very strong anti-vaxxer discourse, as well as skepticism
regarding hospitals and how they deal with Covid. There are also plenty
of correlations to satanic themes (represented mostly in red) or
toxicity/radiation (represented in yellow and green). Images of
radiation poisoning, its effects on people and the environment are also
present. Interestinly enough, the Instagram dataset contained instances
of Nazi symbolism. There were also plenty of posts with merch (mostly
T-shirts), which is a platform-specific occurrence.
Figure 8: Image wall with the Instagram image dataset sorted by color in ImageSorter (Click to enlarge)
Regarding Parler (Figure 7), discussion seems to be more fragmented,
since there are fewer links between clusters of words. Moreover, we find
more arcane conspiracy theories like references to lizards, but also a
lot of technical discussion about 5G, not necessarily in a
conspiratorial way.
Parler's image dataset (784 images) appears to gravitate around 3 main
categories (as seen in Figure 9): tech, politics and toxicity. In this
regard, there are at least 2 companies that are most often represented:
Huawei (represented in red compositions) and Verizon; others also
appear, such as Motorola, Blackberry, LG, but in less considerable
amounts. The most obvious representation of 5G is a collection of mainly
blue 5G logos with a tech-like aspect. In terms of hardware represented,
Parler contains a large amount of antennae, as well as phones,
WiFi
symbols and cars. There are also numerous images of public figures,
mostly political figures. The Parler community discusses the 5G in terms
of world domination, consent issues, lies about Covid (and about DNA,
mutations and AI within the context of the pandemic), as well as the
dangers (environmental and political) associated with 5G. In terms of
environmental concerns, an earth imagery about pollution/radiation is
present within the dataset; toxicity is one of the environmental worries
(represented in yellow and green).
Figure 9: Image wall with the Parler image dataset sorted by color in ImageSorter (Click to enlarge)
Narratives
Looking at the top 200 most liked posts from Instagram and Parler, these
are the main strings of narratives identified:
Figure 10: 42 Codes (Click to enlarge)
With a second step of coding, 8 top-level nodes emerged from the
original 42 codes:
- Technology
- Others Attitudes
- Health
- Self-perception
- Different topics
- Action
- Politics and Government
- Feelings about the truth.
These top-level nodes represent the aggregation of the previous coding
process. In this phase we noticed a first difference between the two
platforms, since on Instagram more topics were addressed. The weight of
each topic can be summarized in figures 11 and 12 as follows:
Figure 11: Number of topics on Instagram (Click to enlarge)
Figure 12: Number of Topics on Parler (Click to enlarge)
In this regard, we can argue that Instagram reflects the confusion about
5G within society more so than Parler. On Instagram, the information is
more fragmented, and the emphasis is on the "us vs. them" division.
Because of the platform affordances, it is harder to distinguish users
and hashtags. There is more diverse content linked to politics, health,
etc. On the contrary, Parler is more structured and complex, something
more "scientific" and more argument-based, less organised through
hashtag affiliation than on Instagram. Users are more clearly defined
through a close reading of profiles, etc. but less distinctive in their
posts.
User Analysis Instagram vs. Parler
As the analysis of the different user groups sharing content related to
5G conspiracies on Instagram and Parler showed, over 50% of the users
listed in the respective sub-dataset have been removed, while for
Parler, there was only one deleted user within the sub-dataset.
Moreover, nearly 40% of the users in the Instagram sub-dataset were
classified as "conspiracy theorist", as well as 10% as "ordinary user".
On Parler, the majority of users (96%) were identified as "conspiracy
theorist", while only 4% were categorized as "independent media".
Looking at the conspiracy theory accounts within both sub-datasets, it
quickly became apparent that the tribal affiliation is more diverse on
Instagram than it is on Parler (Figures 13 and 14). Even though the
majority of Instagram conspiracy theory accounts were classified as
"religious fundamentalists", it shall be mentioned that this was only
one recurring account making up for a volume of nearly 42% in the
sub-dataset. While one user may not be representative for all accounts
listed in the dataset, they appear to be a dominant voice in the
discourse, considering their own activity and user engagement with their
content in the 200 most-liked dataset. The far-right, also consisting of
a considerable amount of recurring users, accounted for over 25% of
conspiracy theorists on Instagram, followed by alt-health, alternative
news, anti-establishment and "other" accounts. For the Parler
sub-dataset, the category "other" was never used, as the users more
clearly positioned themselves within one tribe through their biographies
and/or feeds. Moreover, the majority of users affiliated themselves with
Trumpists (75,4%), followed by the far-right (11,5%) and alternative
news (8,4%), and only a small majority positioned themselves as
affiliated with anti-establishment, communist, or alt-health
conspiracies. Furthermore, a qualitative analysis of a few sample users
revealed that some Parler users seem to have migrated to the platform
after being deplatformed from Instagram (as seen in Figure 15).
Figure 13: Tribal affiliation of Instagram conspiracy theory accounts (Click to enlarge)
Figure 14: Tribal affiliation of Parler conspiracy theory accounts (Click to enlarge)
Figure 15: Example of user that migrated to Parler after being removed from Instagram (Click to enlarge)
Time series and locations
In the figure below one can see the frequency of Instagram and Parler
posts from the datasets. On Instagram, there seems to be a correlation
between the frequency of 5G-posts and the first wave of Covid-19 cases
in the USA. Nonetheless, this correlation seems to fade aways with time
- the correlation strongly decreases during the second wave and
completely disappears before the third. In general, the correlation is
negative (-0.17). The large spike on the 15th of April, but this can be
attributed to one single user. No spikes correspond to cell tower
burnings, as was hypothesised. The number of Parler posts increases over
time, and shows a -0.19 correlation with the number of Instagram posts.
However, it is important to note that Parler has seen a general increase
in usage in the last months of 2020. Most posts about 5G by 5G companies
on Instagram are made in February, before the corona crisis reached the
United States. There is no post about it in March, but later in the year
some posts appear again. Lastly, not included in the figure, there was
no visual correlation between the increase in 5G cell tower coverage and
the number of Instagram posts about 5G.
Figure 16: Time series of Instagram and Parler posts related to 5G, as well as number of Covid cases, and number of posts made by a sample of 5G companies on Instagram (Click to enlarge)
Figure 17: Frequency of 5G-conspiratorial posts based in London on Instagram (Click to enlarge)
From the previous graph (Figure 16) it can be inferred that these types
of posts do not have a strong correlation with the recent Covid-19
waves. In order to detect what might have caused these spikes, we
decided to check what are the most present cities in the data set, to
then zoom in on specific cases. Unsurprisingly, London emerged as the
most occurring location. London is one of the first cities that hosted
the 5G network as well as being particularly resilient to its deployment
- many 5G towers have been burnt around the city. In the UK almost 80 5G
towers were burned between April and May, but interestingly enough, this
did not translate into a relevant increase of 5G conspiracy posts on
Instagram. Instead, a clear correlation is found when 5G is being
discussed in the public arena. When events about 5G take place, the
topic is discussed in the mainstream media. This is seen by the
conspirators as a top-down imposition, so they react accordingly,
participating in the discussion and pushing their narratives. Indeed,
the two main peaks occurred when
(i) the 5G network was introduced in
London in August; and
(ii) when London hosted the "5G World Summit" in
Early September.
What are the interpretative frames provided by 5G equipment vendors and network operators?
Textual analysis of manufacturers' websites and Instagram posts
Using the Lippmannian Device to look at the word frequency on the
vendors' network operators' websites, we found the following results:
comparing Figures 18 and 19 we can conclude that some main topics that
corporate actors associate 5G with are small and large scale benefits
for the people who can rely on a secure 5G system for an innovative
future.
Figure 18: Tag Cloud for equipment vendors (obtained through the Lippmannian Device, click to enlarge)
Figure 19: Tag cloud for network operators (obtained with Lippmannian Device, click to enlarge)
What can be noticed from the analysis of the word tree is the prevalence
of the terms "innovation", "first", "centre", "coverage", "platform",
"nationwide", "future", "largest", "new". This suggests the emphasis
websites put in the geographical significance of the 5G network's
coverage, and how they tend to mainly underline its innovative features,
using terms that hint (technological) advancements and centrality
("first", "centre"). This is in line with the mainstream discourse
around technological innovations, which as aforementioned tends to
associate new technologies with a general ameliory for society and an
enhancement of the overall quality of life.
The word cloud of the analysed corporate's websites (Figure 20) displays
the most occurring terms in the 5G dedicated web pages overall. in line
with what observed so far, some of the most used words are "mobile",
"data", "security", "technology", "health", "service", "future", "safe"
and "safety", "power", "society": again it can be seen how matters of
safety and wellness are juxtaposed with triggering words that light up
the imaginary of powerfulness and improvement.
Figure 20: Word cloud of the manufacturers' websites (Click to enlarge)
An interesting comparison can be done with the word cloud of
manufacturers' Instagram posts (Figure 21). Apart from self-referencing
(supposedly mostly through hashtags), a difference stays in the larger
mention of possible application of the 5G technology, within a playful
context. These examples were observable through close readings in some
of the websites, but apparently Instagram pages tend to have content
that is more explicative and inspirational. Again, the target audience
seems to be the end user, rather than other big corporations/industries.
Figure 21: Word cloud manufacturers' Instagram posts (Click to enlarge)
Co-occurrence analysis of words used by vendors on their instagram posts
Figure 22: Co-occurrences network of the most cited words by providers on their Instagram posts (Click to enlarge)
As we see there are a lot of promises for the end user. The main
argument is to show that it will be useful for the people (and maybe try
to contradict the main idea that 5G will mostly be useful for
surveillance or hospitals). Maybe the desire to create a need for the
consumer by saying that it will change lives, change the way they do
things, have better internet etc.
Visual analysis of providers' Instagram profiles
Figure 23: Visualization of all images collected from 5G providers on Instagram sorted by color in ImageSorter (Click to enlarge)
We compiled a set of 752 images which give insights into the corporate
representation of the 5G technology from 6 instagram accounts of 5g
vendors & networks operators: att, verizon, vodafone & nokia, cisco,
ericsson, all with the #5g. The images were posted between 2015 and
2020. Compared to the overall amount of posts on the company's
Instagram accounts, it is notable that only a small percentage of the
instagram posts of the companies are addressing 5G (AT&T 41 of 2018
posts, Cisco 9 out of 1398, Ericsson 70 out of 477 posts, Nokia 192 out
of 996, Verizon 117 out of 1086, Vodafone 17 out of 260).
Inductively coding the pictures with regard to their main themes, several recurring themes could be identified:
people, technology, city and text. The majority of the pictures could be found in the category "people" while depictions of technology were only a minor theme in the dataset. In the category "people", images of conferences were particularly prominent, however, only considering the picture it is often not clearly related to 5G. Moreover, images showing 5g technology are rare and if technology is shown it is also often not clear how this refers to 5G. For example, pictures that depict technology show cars, robots, virtual reality glasses or mobiles, hence, technologies which emphasize 5G as an entertainment or consumer technology, rather than related to public infrastructure. Further, when the images give insights into the functionalities of the 5G technology, there is usually text included in the picture.
Thus, the companies appear to struggle with visualizing 5G without using
text. Additionally, images including text are also used to promote an
utopian vision of 5G, for example through claims such as "5G: a giant
leap for mankind" or "5G will bring technology to life, fundamentally
changing the way people live and do business". With regard to use cases
of 5G technology, "cities" are another recurring topic in the images,
serving as a key theme used by companies to explain consumers possible
use cases for 5G.
Overall, the collection of corporate Instagram posts indicate that 5G
providers mainly use Instagrams as a platform for company marketing
rather than providing information about 5G to the consumers.
Visual and textual analysis of providers' YouTube channels
Figure 24: YouTube thumbnails from the providers' channels sorted by color in ImageSorter (Click to enlarge)
From the analysis of thumbnails, we see that these mostly depict
faces/people rather than tech, often using or demonstrating a product;
this humanizes the technology, centers its effects/benefits for
users/consumers. When the technology is shown, it is mobile phones
(especially screens), rather than infrastructures, and the focus is on
innovation and different markets (e.g. sports, VR, gaming). Brands have
cohesive and consistent color schemes and there's not much
ethnic/racial diversity as far as the representation of people is
concerned, especially for Asian companies.
Figure 25: Word cloud made with the video titles from the providers' YouTube channels (Click to enlarge)
A word cloud was also produced from the video titles taken from the
providers' YouTube channels. The discourse here is similar to what we
saw previously. We can observe a focus on brands, innovation, positive
terminology, focus on mobile tech rather than infrastructure.
6. Discussion
5G Discourse on Instagram vs. Parler
One of the most crucial findings we arrived at is the difference between critical interpretative frames between the two platforms. The main observation to be made in this regard is that on Instagram the discussed theories are less connected to each other and less coherent, making the platforms a fragmented opinion space, where 5G theories are not in dialogue with each other. In contrast, Parler is a much more unified space, where the discussion topics are related to each other through various sub-topics. Debate is much more driven by politics, which makes it possible to identify a distinctive style of discussing 5G on the platform.
As our findings for the user analysis showed, over half of the accounts listed in the Instagram dataset were removed, while for Parler, it was only one user. Considering that the Instagram dataset was composed retrospectively, whereas the Parler dataset was a more timely collection of 5G conspiracy related posts, this result could be attributed to the limitations of our methodology.
Nevertheless, this finding also stands in accordance with the platforms' regulations, content moderation and overall character. Instagram, as a mainstream platform, has considerably stricter community guidelines, which prohibit the spread of conspiratorial content, and a content moderation system that flags and bans users that violate the platform rules. Parler as an unregulated fringe platform, on the other hand, allows users to spread conspiracies and even go into detail thereon. Therefore, it is more likely that the users that have disappeared from the Instagram sub-dataset have been removed by the platform, rather than deleting their own accounts. Moreover, the fact that both the user groups and conspiratorial affiliation are more diverse on Instagram, supports the claim that on mainstream platforms conspiracies exist without theory. On mainstream platforms, conspiracy theories appear in a fragmented and incoherent, rather than structured and argumentative way. In construct, on a fringe platform like Parler, users seem to position themselves somewhat like "experts" belonging to one specific conspiratorial tribe, rather than users sharing conspiracies that cannot be clearly categorized.
Analysis of the co-hashtag network visualization seems to support this as well, as hashtag usage on Parler was considerably more clustered than on Instagram. Examination of the hashtags also showed that Instagram had a large number of hashtags that were iterative of the central 5G node, whereas Parler hashtags were rarely related or iterative to 5G. The strong presence of deep vernacular conspiracy terms, with strong relations to QAnon-related conspiracy theories, rather than relations to 5G- or COVID-related terms, also indicates that discourse on Parler was less focused on 5G than on Instagram.
The visual analysis further confirms these findings. As we have shown, the images used on Instagram suggest a less unified approach on the matter, with a high degree of Bill Gates conspiracies and anti-vaxxer discourse. On the other hand, the Parler images indicate a more politicised discourse on the topic, including references to more politicians and tech companies. What these approaches suggest is that users on mainstream and fringe platforms create different interpretative frames around 5G, where the mainstream platform is more fragmented and there is less context around posts, while the fringe one is more coherent, with tighter connections between the various themes.
Textual analysis of manufacturers' websites and Instagram posts
During the close reading, it can be observed how the 5G is mainly described as: fast, reliable, secure, and empowering the future. Exemplary, the website of CAICT states:
\"5G will expand the connotations of people's livelihood and well-being". The qualities of 5G are always enumerated. These usually are: high speed, high volume transmission, improved connectivity (especially in comparison with 4G). Blackberry, for instance, writes:
"5G: both exciting and ambiguous in what it portends in the way of benefits and risks. This session will explore the challenges and the blessings this technology brings and how you can proactively position yourself securely".
Most websites tend to have a main session dedicated to answering the questions
"What is 5g?" and
"Is it safe?", displaying their attempt to face and appease the most widespread doubts and fears about this novel technology.
Innovation is a persistent term, in conjunction with the explanation of the various benefits for the individual consumer and society at large. The most widely adopted narrative is that the future means improved technology, which leads to a general well-being. Vendors also emphasise the "_empowering_" and "_transforming_" character of 5G. Together with
"innovation" and
"advancement". Finally,
"revolution" is mentioned at times.
Zooming in to the most occurring terms, we can have a better idea of how they are associated.
"First" is linked to
"mobile",
"operator",
"network",
"in the country",
"commercial", displaying a marketing strategy: all the manufacturers place themselves in a position of primacy and advantage in their capability of offering a new product.
In conclusion, the close reading of the word trees shows that the main focus of companies appears to be the individual end-users. Assuming that such an audience is more congenial to mobile devices and home internet connection, rather than a large-scale usage of 5G, most of the websites accordingly manifest the attempt to sell such products. Therefore, infrastructures and materials that enable the 5G technology are left outside the conversation, leading to a possible knowledge gap within the audience.
Visual and textual analysis of providers' YouTube channels
Much like on Instagram, users are seen as active consumers rather than
citizens. The focus on people might help build an emotional connection
to the brand, as opposed to one informed by concrete information about
the implications of the technology. However, this might ultimately fail
to connect the represented technology to anything that is meaningful to
people beyond the technology itself. It is questionable whether
meaningful and powerful emotions can be summoned in this way. Similarly,
in the titles, brand visibility, consumer-targeted activities, and
innovation are prioritized over information. This potentially heightens
the cognitive gap, which users might feel compelled to fill themselves
with their own interpretative frames.
Time series and locations
With regards to the world-wide time series, we found no conclusive
evidence of correlation with other events in the overall graph. The
first intuitive hypothesis was that Instagram deplatformed many of the
5G users that then subsequently migrated to Parler. But this could be a
confounding bias, because Parler has been experiencing an overall
increase in users since the second half of 2020. Furthermore, only one
of 3652 Instagram users in our dataset was traceable down to a user in
the Parler dataset. This is of course limited by the sample size, and
further study into the migration between platforms could offer insight.
Due to limited time, the question of increased moderation on Instagram
was outside the scope of this project, but could be an interesting
avenue of research in the future.
The fact that the largest spike of Instagram posts on a single day could
be attributed to one user raises the question of authentic behaviour.
Future research could look into how much this discussion is fueled by a
small group of users, and whether this can be considered inauthentic.
We had only limited time to work on the locations of the posts. With
more time we believe it would be fruitful to create a map over time, and
see whether some changes occur. Furthermore, it could be interesting to
do more detailed case studies of specific locations, such as what has
been done with London. Reconducting the world-wide discussion to local
trends might help detect sharing patterns and their cause. Therefore we
recommend further research in this area. We note that Archive Team is
making available a large Parler archive on the Internet Archive, which
covers an extended time span
7. Conclusion
Vendors and network operators are more concerned about marketing than
being transparent on the technicalities of 5G. They also fail to create
a meaningful imaginary. This results in a cognitive gap that is filled
by social media users who apply their own interpretative frames. The
shape of these narrative frames changes according to the nature of the
platform where they are spreading:
- Instagram being popular and mainstream, the discussion stems from different topics such as health, technology and politics. Thus, they emerge as fragmented and not necessarily coherent with each other.
- On Parler the user base is more homogenous and thus, the discussion appears to be less fragmented and more polarized towards few main narratives.
Recommendations
Only another imaginary can compete with the conspiracy theories around
5G. A possible approach for mitigating the negative effects of
conspiracy theories is to link 5G technology to some known
personalities, historical events, or absolute categories that people are
already familiar with, feel strongly about, and that puts the
product/service in a wider context. Our conclusion is that in this
present moment it is only the grassroots conspiracy theorists who can do
this successfully. We understand success here as developing a detectable
influence on how regular people see an issue, something we can measure
on Instagram. The key to this success is a more tightly collaborative
production process that takes place in subcultural spaces such as
Parler. To conclude, out recommendation diverges from the policy
recommendations in other studies, in that it does not focus on
information and counter-information, but imagination and
counter-imagination, namely the more meaningful category of imaginaries.
Limitations
Scope: On the one hand, we might have looked at too many different
things, from corporate marketing on YouTube through pop culture on
Instagram to deep subculture on Parler. This is due to the dispersed and
spontaneous structure of hackathons like the summer school and a
consequence of having 17 proactive and self-motivated participants
collaborating.
On the other hand, we missed looking at the
state perspective, such as
regulators, standards bodies, local councils, parliamentary committees,
etc. who all have their own distinctive takes on 5G. One of our main
claims is that people are framed as consumers by companies, while in the
context of conspiracy theories they frame themselves as living bodies
and citizens, and that the latter frame emerges in the vacuum left by
the failure of companies to deliver a powerful imaginary accompanying
the ongoing 5G deployment. Imaginaries to citizens are most often
supplied by state-related entities, so that studying their discourse
would be necessary in order to make our argument complete. We avoided
studying the state perspective because of the context of the Winter
School as a methodological exercise and research prototyping space,
since the corporate perspective would be reconstructed through the same
research protocols as the state perspective. For the same reason, it is
relatively straightforward to complete our investigation and add the
state perspective, since the research protocol for reconstructing the
corporate perspective applies and could be followed.
8. References
Ahmed, W., Downing, J., Tuters, M., & Knight, P. (2020).
Four experts investigate how the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory began. The Conversation.
http://theconversation.com/four-experts-investigate-how-the-5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-began-139137
Ahmed, W., Vidal-Alaball, J., Downing, J., & López Seguí, F. (2020). COVID-19 and the 5G Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Twitter Data.
Journal of Medical Internet Research, _22_(5), 1--9.
Bruns, A., Harrington, S., & Hurcombe, E. (2020). 'Corona? 5G? or both?': The dynamics of COVID-19/5G conspiracy theories on Facebook.
Media International Australia, _177_(1), 12--29.
Easterling, K. (2014).
Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space. Verso.
Rosenblum, N. L., & Muirhead, R. (2019).
A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy. Princeton University Press.
9. Appendix
A. 5G companies
A.1. Vendors
[Organization, URL]
Apple,
http://apple.com
Blackberry,
http://blackberry.com
Broadcom,
http://broadcom.com
CATT,
http://catt.nyu.edu/
Cisco,
http://cisco.com
Ericsson,
http://ericsson.com
ETRI,
http://etri.re.kr/
Futurwei,
http://futurewei.com
Google,
http://google.com
HP,
http://hp.com
Huawei,
http://huawei.com
Infineon,
http:/infineon.com
Intel,
http://intel.com
Interdigital,
http://www.interdigital.com
Juniper,
http://juniper.net
Kapsch,
http://kapsch.net
Kyocera,
http://kyocera.com
Lenovo,
http://lenovo.com
LG,
http://lg.com
Matrixx
SwMavenir,
http://mavenir.com
MediaTek,
http://mediatek.com
Mitsubishi,
http://mitsubishielectric.com/
Motorola Mobility,
http://motorola.com
Newtec,
http://newtec.com
Nokia,
http://nokia.com
OPPO,
http://oppo.com
Samsung,
http://samsung.com
Sandvine,
http://sandvine.com
Sharp,
http://sharp.com
Sony,
http://sony.com
Spirent,
http://spirent.com
Vivo,
http://vivo.com
XiaoMi,
http://xiaomi.com
ZTE,
http://zte.com
[]{#anchor-49}A.2. Network Operators
AT&T,
http://att.com
Avanti,
https://avantiplc.com
Bell Canada,
http://bell.ca
BT,
http://bt.com
CableLabs,
http://cablelabs.com
CAICT,
http://caict.ac.cn
Charter,
http://charter.ca
China Mobile,
http://chinamobileltd.com
China Telecom,
http://www.chinatelecom-h.com
China Unicom,
http://chinaunicom.com/
CISA,
http://www.cisa.gov
FirstNet,
http://firstnet.com
Hughes,
http://hughes.com
Inmarsat,
http://inmarsat.com
Intelsat,
http://intelsat.com
KDDI,
http://kddi.com
KPN,
http://kpn.com
KT,
https://www.kt.com/
LG U+,
https://www.uplus.co.kr/
NTT DoCoMo,
https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/
Orange,
http://orange.com
Rogers,
http://rogers.com
SES,
https://www.ses.com/
SK Telecom,
https://www.sktelecom.com/
Softbank,
https://www.softbank.jp/
Telecom Italia,
https://www.tim.it/
Telefonica,
https://www.telefonica.com/
Telenor,
https://www.telenor.com/
Leonardo,
https://www.leonardocompany.com/
Telia,
https://www.teliacompany.com/
Telstra,
https://www.telstra.com.au/
Telus,
https://www.telus.com/
T-Mobile,
https://www.t-mobile.com/
Turkcell,
https://www.turkcell.com.tr/
Verizon,
https://www.verizon.com/
Vodafone,
https://www.vodafone.com/
https://www.att.com/5g/consumer/
https://www.avantiplc.com/news/avanti-sat5g-successful-integration-of-5g-core-network-into-live-satellite-network/
https://www.bell.ca/Mobility/Our\_network/5G
https://www.bt.com/help/mobile/what-is-5g-on-bt
https://www.cablelabs.com/10g/5g
http://www.caict.ac.cn/english/research/whitepapers/202003/t20200327_278199.html
https://5g.hk.chinamobile.com/en/
https://www.cisa.gov/5g
https://www.firstnet.com/community
https://www.t-mobile.com/5g/news/nationwide-lte-coverage-surpasses-2-61-million-square-mile.html
https://www.orange.com/en/foundation-digital-revolution/much-more-just-gigabits-promises-5g
https://www.telus.com/en/about/5g
https://www.vodafone.com/what-we-do/technology/5g
https://www.verizon.com/5g/
https://www.telenor.com/media/press-release/telenor-opens-first-commercial-5g-network-in-norway
https://www.telstra.com.au/5g
B. Key words
security, fast, speed, safe, safety, future, innovation, smart, people, quality, reliable, high, low, benefits, network, health, country, nation, city
C. Equipment vendors
- No blackberry because the website only has videos
- No CATT since it has no page dedicated to the 5G
- No Futurewei because it has no page on 5g
- No Google because it only had 5g in its official page for the mobile phones
- No Kapsch because it has no 5g page in English
- No LG (it only has phone store as results for 5g)
- No Motorola (same as LG)
- No OPPO (same as LG)
- No Sharp (no dedicated webpage on 5g)
- No Vivo (no webpage on 5g)
- No xiaomi (no webpage on 5g)
D. URLs scraped with the Lippmannian device:
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/10/apple-introduces-iphone-12-pro-and-iphone-12-pro-max-with-5g/
https://www.broadcom.com/solutions/broadband-wired-networking/5G-HD
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/what-is-5g.html
https://www.ericsson.com/en/5g
https://etri.re.kr/eng/sub6/sub6\_01020101.etri?departCode=37&departInfoCode=90
https://store.hp.com/us/en/tech-takes/what-is-5g
https://carrier.huawei.com/en/products/wireless-network
https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/discoveries/mobile-communication-5g/
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/wireless-network/5g-technology-overview.html
https://www.interdigital.com/page/5g
https://www.juniper.net/us/en/solutions/5g-networking/
https://global.kyocera.com/ces/5g-solutions/
https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-delivers-on-5g-computing-with-leading-global-network-operators/
https://www.matrixx.com/5g-bss-technology/>
https://mavenir.com/portfolio/core/cloud-packet-core/5g-core/>
https://i.mediatek.com/mediatek-5g
https://www.mitsubishielectric.com/en/about/rd/research/highlights/communications/5g.page
https://www.newtec.eu/products/market/5g
https://www.nokia.com/networks/5g/
https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/5g/what-is-5g/
https://www.sandvine.com/blog/exploring-5g-network-intelligence-requirements-disruptive-mobile-analytics-with-sandvines-active-network-intelligence
https://www.sony.com/en_us/SCA/company-news/press-releases/sony-electronics/2019/sony-and-verizon-demonstrate-how-5g-stands-to-transform-live-sports-production.html
https://www.spirent.com/solutions/5g-network-testing
https://www.zte.com.cn/china/topics/zte-5g-en/index.html
E. Visual and textual analysis of providers' YouTube channels
Two sets of actors:
Equipment Vendors
Apple // Blackberry // Broadcom // CATT // Cisco // Ericsson // ETRI //
Futurewei // Google // HP // Huawei // Infineon // Intel // Interdigital
// Juniper // Kapsch // Kyocera // Lenovo // LG // Matrixx Sw // Mavenir
// MediaTek // Mitsubishi // Motorola Mobility // Newtec // Nokia //
OPPO // Samsung // Sandvine // Sharp // Sony // Spirent // Vivo //
XiaoMi // ZTE
Network Operators
AT&T // Avanti // Bell Canada // BT // CableLabs // CAICT // Charter //
China Mobile // China Telecom // China Unicom // CISA // FirstNet //
Hughes // Inmarsat // Intelsat // KDDI // KPN // KT // LG U+ // NTT
DoCoMo // Orange // Rogers // SES // SK Telecom // Softbank // Sprint //
Telecom Italia // Telefonica // Telenor // Leonardo // Telia // Telstra
// Telus // T-Mobile // Turkcell // UK HO // Verizon // Vodafone
Slides (link)
https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/pub/Dmi/WinterSchool2021Infodemic5G/Project%20Report.pdf
Datasets (links)
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pWuEHGXg9ieS4ac667stMd9ht9DuYWcR