WHAT WAS CLAIMED
6G causes hantavirus.
OUR VERDICT
False. 6G technology is still being developed and does not yet exist.
AAP FACTCHECK - The next generation of mobile communications technology isn't due to go live until 2030, but that hasn't stopped false claims linking "6G" to the 2026 hantavirus outbreak.
6G refers to the "sixth generation" of wireless communications that is touted to enable much faster transmission of mobile data than is currently possible with 4G and 5G.
6G does not cause hantavirus - not least because the technology is still being developed and does not yet exist anywhere in the world.
Among the claims is an Instagram post by an Australian user that falsely links 6G to the hantavirus cluster discovered on a Dutch cruise ship in early May.
The post includes a video claiming 6G is already being used on maritime vessels.
"What they don't tell the people is that 6G rolled out on those cruise ships," a man says in the video.
"People can go look this up. It's '6G maritime cruise ships'.
"And 6G has rolled out on those cruise ships so people are coming down with the illness, that's what it is."
However, a Google search for those keywords does not return any evidence that 6G is already being used on cruise ships. Instead, it returns numerous articles discussing the potential future uses of 6G in a maritime context.
Alternative search engines Bing and Yahoo also do not confirm the existence of 6G on the high seas.
The confusion about maritime 6G may stem from a misinterpretation of news stories about 6GHz wi-fi on cruise ships.
6GHz wi-fi is a wireless frequency band accessible to newer devices equipped with wi-fi 6E technology, according to US computer firm Netgear.
6GHz wi-fi is not the same as 6G. Like 5G before it, 6G is a telecommunications industry standard that uses radio waves to transmit signals.
Branka Vucetic, a wireless communications expert at the University of Sydney, said 6G was still being developed and not yet operational.
"The network should be rolled out in 2030 at earliest," Professor Vucetic told AAP FactCheck. "The claim that 6G has been rolled out on cruise ships is untrue.
"It does not exist anywhere, even its standard has not been set up."
Mobile communications standards - including for 6G - are developed by an industry body called 3GPP, created in 1998 to develop international protocols for 3G technology.
Work on 6G standardisation began in 2024, according to Swedish mobile communications giant Ericsson.
Ericsson separately says on its website that "the first commercial 6G services are expected around the year 2030, with pre-commercial trials expected from 2028".
The World Health Organization (WHO) says hantavirus is primarily spread by contact with the urine, faeces or saliva of infected rodents.
However, the Andes strain of the virus, which is endemic to South America, is known to be transmissible between humans, according to the WHO.
The WHO has confirmed the Andes strain caused the May 2026 outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship.
In July 2020, AAP FactCheck debunked similar claims falsely linking 5G technology to COVID-19.
Rodney Croft, an expert on the health impacts of mobile phone signals at the University of Wollongong, said at the time that such claims were "not new, and have tended to emerge following most new technological advances".
"There is no evidence at all that the radiation from these devices, at the very low levels that people are exposed to, can cause any adverse health effect," Professor Croft told AAP FactCheck in 2020.
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