You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Presidential Alert Test to Light Up Cellphones Around Country

HeadlineOct 03, 2018

Back in the United States, cellphone users across the country will receive a text message from the president later today as part of a test for an alert system managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission. Televisions and radios will also receive alerts shortly after cellphones. The system allows the White House to send text messages to cellphone users only in cases of emergency, but some are already raising alarm that Trump or another president may try to abuse the system.

Topics:
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top