this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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A nationwide test of the emergency and wireless alert systems will be conducted Wednesday at 2:20 p.m. ET, when a message will be sent to all cellphones, TVs and radios.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a news release in August that a message that reads, “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed,” will be sent to all phones. A Spanish version of the message will be displayed depending on the language settings of the devices.

A separate message will be sent to radios and televisions, saying, "This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public."

The test is a joint operation between FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission, meant to “ensure that the systems continue to be effective means of warning the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level,” according to the August news release.

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[–] [email protected] 102 points 1 year ago (6 children)

If anyone has a powered cell phone they don't want someone in their household to know about, power it off.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wow, good call out. That never crossed my mind.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My ho phone will be off. Thank you for your service

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago
[–] Pretzilla 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And leave it off at least until the end of the hour, until the alerts have timed out

[–] TheFlopster 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it's being sent over the cell phone carrier signal, does that mean if you're at home, or otherwise connected to Wi-Fi, that you won't get it?

[–] cm0002 12 points 1 year ago

No, even on WiFi your phone maintains its cellular signal, even data depending on your settings (it's just not actively used as wifi will be considered superior).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

why would someone have that?

[–] Fondots 50 points 1 year ago (2 children)

To expand on the abusive relationship aspect, say your partner, parents, etc. want to keep you from contacting people, maybe your family/friends, maybe the police, maybe your doctor (for example to seek abortion services, or maybe treatment for a health issue they've been trying to withhold medication from you for) they may check your phone to see who you've been contacting or even take your phone from you to prevent you from using it.

There's also of course less savory reasons, cheating, dealing drugs, or other illegal activities.

And somewhat less likely, undercover officers, FBI agents, investigative journalists, etc. whose cover could potentially be compromised if the wrong people are around and that second phone goes off.

[–] Zoomboingding 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As an undercover FBI agent, thanks for the heads up

[–] Agent641 3 points 1 year ago

As a non-undercover Agent, you arent supposed to tell people that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

i didn't thought about abuse etc, make sense, thank for the answer!

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago

Abusive relationships.

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[–] themeatbridge 44 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'm a little over 40 years old, which means I've experienced a number of situations where such an emergency broadcast system would have been a helpful way to disseminate information and quell panic. We've had tests of these systems for as long as I can remember.

I also cannot remember it ever actually being used.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm in Hawaii. I can remember one being used. To create panic. Twitter was where the best attempt at quelling the panic was done.

[–] Bye 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have so many friends who were like “yeah I knew it was fake”. Even if they did, so many of us didn’t and were scared. I was super scared. Fucking old man I hate him. Why would you wait so long to send the follow up. Awful.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

While a lot of other institutions were caught flat footed, everyone in that office presumably got the alert as well and should have realized immediately it was a huge fuckup.

[–] SheeEttin 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Really? You've never heard EAS interruptions on the TV or radio for weather, or gotten an AMBER alert on your phone?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

My state used it when a natural gas plant had an explosion to ask people to lower their thermostats. They also used it for a handful of covid updates that felt like the incorrect use of such a system.

[–] Zoomboingding 1 points 1 year ago

Adding to that, didn't we JUST have a different system send a nationwide alert about 4 or 5 years ago?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Alex Jones is going to freak the fuck out.

[–] doppelgangmember 7 points 1 year ago

Here for it.

We should change the text to "THIS IS A JUST A TEST FOR ALEX"

[–] FlyingSquid 6 points 1 year ago

Sure. That's just what they want you to think.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

FYI:

On GrapheneOS, you can fully disable emergency alerts in Settings → Safety emergency → Wireless emergency alerts since we add a toggle for Presidential alerts. The naming of the alert types varies based on country which is determined by the carrier's country code not language.

Source: [Nitter link] [Twitter link]

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is the message going to be "test2" ?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

This totally sounds like the start of a horror SCP anomaly.

Edit: except the horror is the actual nature of our current reality we are currently experiencing, so nm

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nah, its just in case we get nuked next week.

[–] edgemaster72 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Next week? But moooom, I wanna get nuked nooooow.

[–] Mr_Blott 5 points 1 year ago

"We have nukes at home!"

  • Nukes at home - The slow inevitable crumbling of society as we know it
[–] FlyingSquid 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Never understood why we needed to be warned of that since there's fuck all we could do about it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

So you got time to grab a beer, a chair, and your New Vegas playlists.

[–] Sylver 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just in case you happen to already be within a quarter mile of a nuclear shelter.

They aren’t advertised very well, but I have seen entrances to one in downtown Pittsburgh.

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You think you would even survive in a shelter if you lived in a city the size of Pittsburgh? That would be a direct hit.

[–] Sylver 4 points 1 year ago

Oh yeah that thought never left my mind as well. Best case scenario you end up in a tomb with 9,000 others.

[–] BoxerDevil 2 points 1 year ago

So you can watch all the pretty lights and accept Atom into your heart. And be one in Division

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