An unknown arsonist lit up several towers allegedly due to circulating conspiracy theories.

Over the weekend, several towers used by British cellular provider Vodafone were set aflame. Before that, towers on a site owned by provider EE were also burned. EE and Vodafone believe these incidents to be deliberate acts of arson perpetrated due to a conspiracy theory currently making rounds on social media that the coronavirus was caused by 5G technology.

“This site served thousands of people in the Birmingham area, providing vital 2G, 3G and 4G connectivity as it has done for many years,” an EE spokesperson told CNBC about its incident. “We will try to restore full coverage as quickly as possible, but the damage caused by the fire is significant.”

Social media sites, especially Facebook, have seen a rise in users attributing the current global pandemic to the rise in 5G cellular towers. The so-called evidence to this claim lay in the fact that 5G networks were deployed in Wuhan, China, the origin point of the coronavirus, last year. British fact-checkers have countered that the pandemic has spread to countries that have no 5G infrastructure, such as Iran.

In addition to the tower burnings, clips have surfaced of telecoms engineers being harassed on the street while doing their jobs. Passerby get in close to the workers and demand to know why they are working on allegedly dangerous technology.

British government officials have publicly voiced their distaste for the conspiracy theories. Stephen Powis, national medical director for England, said that he was “absolutely outraged, absolutely disgusted, that people would be taking action against the very infrastructure that we need to respond to this health emergency. It is absolute and utter rubbish.”

A spokesperson of the British government stressed that social media companies need to take responsibility for misinformation on their platforms. “The Culture Secretary is meeting with companies this week to discuss this,” they said.