Claim: Cosmic rays from outer space will enter Earth between 12:30 am and 3:30 am, around the time of the solar eclipse, and harm human bodies through digital devices.
Fact: No scientific evidence exists that cosmic rays can pass through digital devices and harm human bodies. This false claim has circulated online time and again over the past six years.
On 7 April 2024, Soch Fact Check received a WhatsApp message, marked as “forwarded many times,” which claimed the following:
“Tonight between 12:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., make sure to turn off your cell phone, laptop, etc. and keep it away from your body. TV Singapore broke the news. Please inform your family and friends. Tonight, between 12:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., our earth will face the highest radiation. Cosmic light rays will pass near the earth. So turn off your phone etc. and keep it away from your body, because it will cause us harmful effects of radiation. You can see it on google and NASA and BBC news. Share this message with other people who are important to your family, friends, friends and even your wife. You can save many lives by doing this. Hope useful 🙏 🙏🏻”
It was also shared on Facebook multiple times on 8 April.
The claim went viral close to the time of the total solar eclipse which was visible in parts of North America and cast complete darkness in some cities of Texas on 8 April 2024, amidst speculation and misinformation about the alleged harmful effects of the natural phenomenon.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted keyword searches and did not find any reports from “TV Singapore” that allegedly broke the news of cosmic rays harming human bodies between “12:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.”
The same search yielded several fact checks of the false claim dating as early as 2017.
An archived article by Hoax Slayer debunked the claim in 2017 while explaining how the earth’s atmosphere protects us from cosmic rays.
A detailed fact check by Snopes cites scientific concepts to debunk the claim that cosmic rays can harm human bodies through our devices. “These events would cause no direct health risk to humans on the surface of Earth, and as such that non-existent risk would not be exacerbated by the presence of a cell phone near you,” said the article.
In addition to this, The Quint, the Rappler, the AFP Fact Check and Vishvas News also flagged the claim as false when it resurfaced earlier in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
For further investigation, Soch Fact Check conducted keyword searches with the terms “BBC” and “NASA” to find credible news reports on the subject. However, the search did not yield any reports with factual scientific evidence, corroborating the claim that cosmic rays can harm humans.
Therefore, Soch Fact Check concludes that a viral message, warning humans against the use of digital devices closer to the time of a solar eclipse, is unsubstantiated, and, therefore, false.
Virality
The original message circulated widely on WhatsApp.
It was also shared on Facebook here, here, here and here.
Conclusion: A viral WhatsApp message, warning humans against the use of digital devices closer to the time of the solar eclipse, is false. The claim about cosmic rays entering the Earth and harming human bodies through digital devices, circulating online since 2017, has been debunked multiple times in the past.
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Background image in cover photo: Scientific American.
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