Recipients of the test message of the new Presidential Alert system heard a tone and vibration before receiving a message that reads "THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System." Photo courtesy of FEMA
Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Three New Yorkers have filed suit against President Donald Trump and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, seeking to halt Presidential Alert notifications.
"Plaintiffs are American citizens who do not wish to receive text messages, or messages of any kind, on any top or subject, from defendant Trump," the lawsuit reads. Trump's "rise to power was faciliated by weaponized disinformation that he broadcast into the public information sphere via Twitter in addition to traditional mass media."
A test message for the new alert system went out at 2:18 p.m. Wednesday.
They system sends messages to mobile devices in the United States in a format similar to Amber Alerts for missing children and weather alerts. The new alerts are mandatory and cannot be turned off.
The suit, which names Trump and FEMA administrator Brock Long, was filed Sept. 26 in the Southern District Court of New York. It seeks to halt the system.
Edward Snowden, a former U.S. defense contractor who leaked information about the National Security Agency's spying methods, warned the public on Twitter about the new alerts.
"The same centralized infrastructure that lets them send something to everyone enables them to read anything from anyone," Snowden said.
He linked to 2016 article that warned of the {link:NSA's surveillance capabilities.
: "https://www.justsecurity.org/33044/unprecedented-unlawful-nsas-upstream-surveillance/" target="_blank"}
"Upstream surveillance represents a new surveillance paradigm, one in which computers constantly scan our communications for information of interest to the government," the article states. "As the legislative debate gets underway, it's critical to frame the technological and legal issues that Congress and the public must consider -- and to examine far more closely the less intrusive alternatives available to the government."
The alert went to millions of Americans but some reported not getting it. Mobile devices in airplane mode or that were turned off wouldn't get notifications. Also phones that WEA compatible didn't get it. And some carriers don't participate.
"A very important reason to test, and why we initiated it to test locally, state-level, and then ultimately testing at the presidential level is to discover the actual results versus what should happen theoretically," said David Simpson, former chief of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.
The message was sent via the FEMA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System to the wireless carriers, who distributed it to their customers.
