September 16, 2018

How long before Trump finds a way to abuse this? Coming to your cell phones next week courtesy of FEMA -- the "presidential alert system."

President Donald Trump may soon be communicating with you directly on your phone — even if you don't follow him on Twitter.

Next Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will do its first test of a system that allows the president to send a message to most U.S. cellphones.

More than 100 mobile carriers, including all the major wireless firms, are participating in the roll out, FEMA stated in a message on its website posted Thursday.

"The EAS [Emergency Alert System] is a national public warning system that provides the President with the communications capability to address the nation during a national emergency," FEMA said.

The test message will have a header that reads "Presidential Alert," according to the agency.

Users whose phones are on will twice hear a tone and vibration and then see an English-only (for now) message: "THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

The wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system was authorized by Congress in 2015 under a law that states the "system shall not be used to transmit a message that does not relate to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety."

[...]

FEMA stated that the government cannot track end users' location through this alert system.

The test is supposed to take place at 2:18 p.m. EDT on Sept. 20. Under the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006, cellphone users cannot opt out of the presidential alerts.

As CNN's Brian Stelter and his panel discussed in the segment above, the danger here is with Trump constantly spreading so many conspiracy theories, and with his credibility in tatters, what happens if millions of Americans don't believe the alerts because they don't trust anything Trump says.

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