At the end of March, just days after the British lockdown began, a grim coronavirus story started to spread across the internet. Stickers sporting the logo of Extinction Rebellion (XR), the well-known climate activist group, were appearing on lamp posts, bus stops and postboxes all over Britain – reading “Corona is the cure, humans are the disease”. The images of these stickers quickly went viral on Facebook and Twitter, appearing in British Facebook groups as well as some parts of Europe. Users thought it was unbelievable to see a group dedicated to prolonging human life championing the effects of a virus that has already killed more than 400,000 people worldwide.

What made it feel so unbelievable was probably the fact that it wasn’t true. As it turned out, these stickers weren’t from XR at all, but from far-right activists simply trying to discredit them. XR tweeted that it was aware of the stickers and was trying to get them, and the fake XR Twitter account that had emerged, removed (as well as reiterating that it did not agree with the sentiment). However, what made this mix-up so readily viral is that its message is becoming eerily familiar – celebrating the impact of the deadly coronavirus on the planet.

New Statesman