Are global elites plotting to implant microchips in people's brains that will allow these elites to control human thoughts via fifth-generation cellular technology (5G)? No, that's not true: Human skin blocks radio waves at the high frequencies used in 5G transmissions, shielding internal organs from adverse effects, scientists say. And while medical-technology companies have won regulatory approval for human trials on microchips to be implanted in participants' brains, these devices are designed to transfer people's thought commands to external computers, not to infiltrate the human mind from outside.
The claim appeared in a Hungarian-language video on TikTok on May 1, 2023. The question sticker asked: "Hi Ádám! Why are these 5G towers allowed to work in our country?" The narrator replied, in a translation by Lead Stories:
5G towers aren't banned in our country because we're in the center of Europe and they're needed to manipulate the people... It's no accident that they're erecting 5G towers everywhere... because they'll be needed when transhumans -- the people for whom we're living as slaves, those ultra-rich billionaires who are chipped, the ones who actually control the world [and] consider themselves to be more developed than us -- they'll try to force [transhumanism] on the human race, and the 5G network will be very important for the operation of these chips.
Here is a screenshot from the video at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sun Jun 4 17:07:29 2023 UTC)
Transhumanism is an ideology that envisions people living in symbiosis with technology, augmenting human capabilities in ways that have been hitherto unthinkable. Organizations such as the World Economic Forum have recently been mulling the opportunities and the ethical ramifications of tech-enhanced homo sapiens.
However, there is no evidence that 5G would play a key role in a transhumanist future. 5G is essentially an engineering standard for wireless communications networks that allows data to be transferred much faster than before. This speediness is possible because 5G can operate at wavelengths of 10 millimeters or less, known as MMW, as well as the longer wavelengths used by 4G and earlier systems, according to an August 2020 article in Health Physics, a scientific journal that focuses on radiation safety.
Unlike lower-frequency radio waves, MMW do not penetrate beyond the surface of the human skin and therefore do not reach internal organs, Health Physics said. On July 16, 2019, The New York Times corroborated this in an article that debunked popular concerns about 5G:
According to experts on the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation, radio waves become safer at higher frequencies, not more dangerous.
Even if MMW could penetrate the epidermis, there is no evidence that such transmissions could influence people's thought patterns via microchips implanted in their brains.
Neuralink, a U.S. medical-technology firm founded by billionaire Elon Musk, won approval in May 2023 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for clinical trials on a brain-computer interface (BCI) in humans. Earlier, Musk said he hoped Neuralink's technology could help alleviate conditions ranging from autism to paralysis and might allow people to browse the internet using thought commands.
Microchips in the brain could possibly open opportunities for outsiders to plant thoughts in people's minds, but there is no proof that this is currently possible. As a 2020 study by the RAND Corporation (downloadable here) noted:
Just as it is possible to hack a pacemaker or insulin pump, it is quite conceivable -- albeit far in the future -- that someone could hack a BCI and send cognitive commands or even thoughts to the brain.
