Daily conspiracy

[Fake Messiah]

9 of the best technology conspiracy theories

From government surveillance programs to microchips in vaccines, technology-centric conspiracy theories have exploded in the digital age, adding to some of the best conspiracy theories already in existence.


1 The Large Hadron Collider is opening a portal to hell

Verdict: Not True


2 Tracking microchips in COVID-19 vaccines

Verdict: Not True


3 5G networks spread COVID-19

Verdict: Not True


4 The dead internet theory

Verdict: Partially True

Studies show bot traffic was responsible for 51% of all internet activity in 2024 — the first time bots surpassed humans. And since ChatGPT's launch, AI-generated content has exploded, with another study finding that 13.1% of websites now host such material.


5 Governments can control the weather

Verdict: Partially True

Basic forms of weather modification also exist today, in particular cloud seeding. This involves dispersing materials like silver iodide into clouds, which can marginally enhance rainfall. Countries like China and Saudi Arabia use the approach to assist in agriculture. China harnessed this technology to ensure clear skies for the 2008 Olympics.


6 Phones eavesdrop on you for ad targeting

Verdict: Partially True

For a start, constant audio recording would rapidly drain phone batteries and trigger visible indicators on phone displays. More importantly, unauthorized recording would create enormous legal liability for those who engaged in it.

But there is something potentially more unsettling behind the phenomenon. Online platforms, advertisers and data brokers are constantly collecting, curating and reselling every tiny piece of information they can glean from our online and offline behaviour. This allows them to develop incredibly accurate profiles of people to provide spookily appropriate, and timely, product suggestions.


7 Planned obsolescence

Verdict: Partially True

There is historical evidence that companies have pursued obsolescence as a strategy — in the 1920s, for instance, major light bulb manufacturers came together to form the "Phoebus cartel," which colluded to reduce bulb lifespans to just 1,000 hours. General Motors also pioneered annual model changes to entice customers to buy newer vehicles, creating a template that other industries copied. Technology vendors are particularly guilty — think smartphones with batteries that degrade in just a few years, or no longer support software updates.


8 Government-sponsored mind control programs

Verdict: True

In 1953, CIA director Allen Dulles launched a top secret program called MKUltra aimed at developing exactly those kinds of capabilities. The agency covertly contracted out 162 projects to various universities, research foundations and institutions to study how psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, electroshock therapy, sensory deprivation and various forms of torture could be used to manipulate people’s mental states.


9 Widespread digital surveillance

Verdict: True

In June 2013, former CIA contractor Edward Snowden leaked a treasure trove of classified documents to journalists that validated many of these fears.

The revelations uncovered a mass surveillance network operated by U.S. intelligence agencies and their foreign allies to collect phone records and monitor internet activity across the globe. Most prominently, it uncovered the PRISM program, operated by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), which used secret court orders to demand internet communication data from technology companies.

The U.K.'s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was also revealed to be tapping into 200 fiber-optic cables around the world, allowing it to monitor up to 600 million communications daily.

https://www.livescience.com/technology/t...y-theories