Who is Fanos Panayides and why were people protesting with him in Melbourne? One Guardian staffer asked another to explain to them ... quickly
Josh Taylor explains it to Steph Harmon Tue 12 May 2020
More than 100 people gather at a protest led by Fanos Panayides in Melbourne, waving placards against coronavirus lockdown, 5G and vaccines. Panayides has gained followers by exhorting them to smash TVs in protest at the media. Photograph: William West/AFP via Getty Images
Hi Josh. I’ve just seen a video in which many Australians appear to be smashing their televisions. What is happening please?
It’s all about a former reality TV star from Melbourne, his growing Facebook following, and protests against the coronavirus lockdown, media, vaccines, 5G and microchips.
Now I am even more confused. How did it start?
In April a former reality TV show star, Fanos Panayides, started a Facebook group called “99% unite Main Group ‘it’s us or them’”. In a month it has grown to nearly 40,000 members.
There is no real united message in the group except for claims people are not being told the whole story on a wide variety of things: from vaccines, to alleged microchips being installed in the population, to conspiracy theories connecting 5G technology to the coronavirus. Some people are simply opposed to the lockdown. It’s a whole grab bag.
Hi Josh. I’ve just seen a video in which many Australians appear to be smashing their televisions. What is happening please?
It’s all about a former reality TV star from Melbourne, his growing Facebook following, and protests against the coronavirus lockdown, media, vaccines, 5G and microchips.
Now I am even more confused. How did it start?
In April a former reality TV show star, Fanos Panayides, started a Facebook group called “99% unite Main Group ‘it’s us or them’”. In a month it has grown to nearly 40,000 members.
There is no real united message in the group except for claims people are not being told the whole story on a wide variety of things: from vaccines, to alleged microchips being installed in the population, to conspiracy theories connecting 5G technology to the coronavirus. Some people are simply opposed to the lockdown. It’s a whole grab bag.
cmwlsn(@cameronwilson)
an example of a sign from today's protest that's being circulated in global conspiracy online communities pic.twitter.com/Ql9rp4qlxtMay 10, 2020
Last week Panayides told his followers to smash their TVs in protest of the media “telling us what to think”. Panayides smashed his own TV in his backyard declaring TVs were terrorising the world, and we needed to take the power back. Dozens of his followers followed suit, filming themselves taking hammers and other tools to their own TVs.
Panayides still has a TV, however, because in a later video on Facebook he showed a video of it.
Since then, he and a group of people from the group protested outside parliament over the lockdown in Melbourne on the weekend. Panayides was one of 10 people arrested over the protest, which police said were in breach of the social distancing rules.
Video has circulated online of police moving in to stop Panayides speaking at the event after he attempted to read a verse from Revelations in the Bible which, he says, talks about microchips.
I’ve heard about people attacking cell towers and telecom workers in the UK. Is this the same as that?
In the initial stages of the pandemic, debunked conspiracy theories blaming the 5G rollout for spreading coronavirus proliferated around the world – mainly on Facebook groups like this one. But while the people attacking those towers were likely also influenced by something they read on Facebook, they didn’t come from exactly the same group.
Still, although Facebook has banned posts connecting 5G with coronavirus, it wasn’t hard to find posts on the group complaining about 5G, and connecting it with the Cedar Meats outbreak in Victoria.
How do people think 5G could even spread a virus?
The reasoning varies depending on the conspiracy you are reading, but the most common one seems to be that because 5G was being rolled out in Wuhan at the time of the outbreak, it must have had some role in it (it didn’t). Other conspiracies falsely claim 5G “poisons cells” or makes it easier to catch coronavirus. None of this is true.
Does this all have something to do with controversial reality TV chef and David Icke enthusiast Pete Evans?
Again, also adjacent. A word that keeps coming up in the group is “Plandemic”, and Pete Evans’ increasingly conspiratorial Facebook and Instagram feeds have mentioned this word too.
an example of a sign from today's protest that's being circulated in global conspiracy online communities pic.twitter.com/Ql9rp4qlxtMay 10, 2020
Last week Panayides told his followers to smash their TVs in protest of the media “telling us what to think”. Panayides smashed his own TV in his backyard declaring TVs were terrorising the world, and we needed to take the power back. Dozens of his followers followed suit, filming themselves taking hammers and other tools to their own TVs.
Panayides still has a TV, however, because in a later video on Facebook he showed a video of it.
Since then, he and a group of people from the group protested outside parliament over the lockdown in Melbourne on the weekend. Panayides was one of 10 people arrested over the protest, which police said were in breach of the social distancing rules.
Video has circulated online of police moving in to stop Panayides speaking at the event after he attempted to read a verse from Revelations in the Bible which, he says, talks about microchips.
I’ve heard about people attacking cell towers and telecom workers in the UK. Is this the same as that?
In the initial stages of the pandemic, debunked conspiracy theories blaming the 5G rollout for spreading coronavirus proliferated around the world – mainly on Facebook groups like this one. But while the people attacking those towers were likely also influenced by something they read on Facebook, they didn’t come from exactly the same group.
Still, although Facebook has banned posts connecting 5G with coronavirus, it wasn’t hard to find posts on the group complaining about 5G, and connecting it with the Cedar Meats outbreak in Victoria.
How do people think 5G could even spread a virus?
The reasoning varies depending on the conspiracy you are reading, but the most common one seems to be that because 5G was being rolled out in Wuhan at the time of the outbreak, it must have had some role in it (it didn’t). Other conspiracies falsely claim 5G “poisons cells” or makes it easier to catch coronavirus. None of this is true.
Does this all have something to do with controversial reality TV chef and David Icke enthusiast Pete Evans?
Again, also adjacent. A word that keeps coming up in the group is “Plandemic”, and Pete Evans’ increasingly conspiratorial Facebook and Instagram feeds have mentioned this word too.
cam smith(@sexenheimer)
Pete Evans is doing a bit more than flirting with Qanon in his insta stories. pic.twitter.com/XyYzHLohH3May 11, 2020
Plandemic is a 26-minute documentary that is now banned from Facebook for spreading misinformation about coronavirus. Vimeo and YouTube have also removed it from their platforms.
In the video, discredited researcher Judy Mikovits makes a number of inaccurate claims about the origins of Covid-19. One claim, among others, is that Covid-19 is being spread to force vaccines on to the population as a form of control.
Mikovits also falsely claims you can retransmit coronavirus to yourself by wearing a face mask.
This all sounds bonkers. What’s our leadership doing?
The chief health officer Brendan Murphy called out the people trying to connect 5G to coronavirus, stating it was “silly misinformation” and “complete nonsense”. He said: “5G has got nothing at all to do with coronavirus.”
Prime minister Scott Morrison was more sympathetic to the protesters over the weekend, stating he understood their frustrations over the restrictions.
“It’s a free country, people will make their protest and make their voices heard. But equally, that needs to be done in an appropriate way and it needs to respect the law enforcement authorities who are just simply trying to do their job. So we understand it’s a difficult time and those issues will be dealt with in the normal way.”
So they’re not doing heaps then.
No – but these protests are not really all that well-attended compared to the ones in the US, so it might be a case of trying to ignore it and hoping it goes away?
Pete Evans is doing a bit more than flirting with Qanon in his insta stories. pic.twitter.com/XyYzHLohH3May 11, 2020
Plandemic is a 26-minute documentary that is now banned from Facebook for spreading misinformation about coronavirus. Vimeo and YouTube have also removed it from their platforms.
In the video, discredited researcher Judy Mikovits makes a number of inaccurate claims about the origins of Covid-19. One claim, among others, is that Covid-19 is being spread to force vaccines on to the population as a form of control.
Mikovits also falsely claims you can retransmit coronavirus to yourself by wearing a face mask.
This all sounds bonkers. What’s our leadership doing?
The chief health officer Brendan Murphy called out the people trying to connect 5G to coronavirus, stating it was “silly misinformation” and “complete nonsense”. He said: “5G has got nothing at all to do with coronavirus.”
Prime minister Scott Morrison was more sympathetic to the protesters over the weekend, stating he understood their frustrations over the restrictions.
“It’s a free country, people will make their protest and make their voices heard. But equally, that needs to be done in an appropriate way and it needs to respect the law enforcement authorities who are just simply trying to do their job. So we understand it’s a difficult time and those issues will be dealt with in the normal way.”
So they’re not doing heaps then.
No – but these protests are not really all that well-attended compared to the ones in the US, so it might be a case of trying to ignore it and hoping it goes away?
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