[ad_1]
The Federal Emergency Management Agency tests for the first time next week a new presidential alert system across the country, which will allow Donald Trump to send a message directly to almost everyone who has a phone portable.
Officials insisted that the system can not be used for political purposes. FEMA also assured users that it could not track the location of mobile phone users through the alert system.
Nobody with a mobile phone can withdraw from presidential alerts.
The test of wireless emergency alert system messages is being conducted by FEMA in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission, FEMA said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.
In next week's test, everyone will receive a message that looks like a text and will be titled "Presidential Alert," FEMA said.
Users whose service providers participate in the test, whose phones are within range and within reach of a cell tower, will hear a tone and vibration first – twice. Everyone will receive this message in English: "THIS IS A TEST of the national wireless emergency alert system. No action is necessary. "
More than 100 mobile operators are taking part in the test at 14h18 Eastern Time on Thursday 20 September.
The system is the latest generation of warnings at a time when more people are usually connected to their cell phones at once than radios or televisions. Emergency alerts will also continue to be broadcast on the NOAA weather radio, news bulletins, the emergency alert system on radio and television programs, and outdoor sirens.
Two minutes after the WEA tests, FEMA will also test the nationwide warnings of the emergency alert system, similar to the old emergency broadcast system and sending alarms. radio and television alerts.
The 2015 law authorizing the WEA system allows sending warnings only in the event of "natural disaster, act of terrorism or other human-caused disaster or threat to public safety," noted NBC News.
"If you separate that from the politics and personality of any president, then it's a great idea and an incredible use of technology to reach everyone if they're in danger," Karen North, director of Annenberg's digital social media program at the University of Southern California, told NBC.
[ad_2]
Source link