The mobile government loudspeaker in your pocket

Presidential text alerts are dangerously unnecessary

President Trump in a phone.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Cunaplus_M.Faba/iStock, The7Dew/iStock, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Today at 2:18 p.m., my phone let out a banshee screech as it received the first ever Presidential Alert: "THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed." On my iPhone, it looked and sounded like a flood or AMBER Alert, and joined a chorus of phones going off around me in the newsroom. It was the alarm heard 'round the nation. And it had been sent by the president himself.

Misinformation circulated in the days leading up to this test, initially delayed by Hurricane Florence, including rumors that President Trump will now be able to send all-caps tweets directly to your phone (he won't). The alert system will supposedly only be used in the case of a true national emergency. Nonetheless, the consequences of having such a system are insidious. The risks of the government being able to reach every smartphone-owning American in an instant greatly outweigh the benefits.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.