>If the act is only words then it doesn't require privilege, I'm honestly curious how you would connect the two.

Because words carry weight based on who says them. Which is based on power/privileged. The president making an announcement about MedBeds would cause a much bigger conversation than a crackpot conspiracy group on Facebook. And that's sadly not belittling the FB group (give who I've seen fall for it), that's demonstrating how much more authority the president's words have.

>but a word alone can't harm anyone.

In the same way a pebble can't harm you, but it can be holding back a rockslide that can cause mass damage.