Amazon hasn’t ordered delivery drivers to pull over during Oct. 4 FEMA alert test
The first test of the national wireless emergency system by the Federal Emergency Management Agency is shown on a cellular phone at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018. The Associated Press on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, reported on social media posts falsely claiming that Amazon has told delivery workers to stop driving for one hour during the Oct. 4 test of the national emergency alert system because phones and other electronic devices will be inoperable. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
CLAIM: Amazon has told delivery workers to stop driving for one hour during the Oct. 4 test of the national emergency alert system because phones and other electronic devices will be inoperable.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Amazon says it has not sent any directives to its employees or affiliates regarding the emergency alert. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says the national alert test will not render phones and other devices inoperable and that users can simply dismiss the notice. The test, featuring the same familiar audio tone that’s been used since the 1960s to broadcast national warnings, lasts just 30 minutes, not one hour.
THE FACTS: Social media users are continuing to spread wildly false claims about this week’s test of the national emergency alert system.
Many are sharing a video of a man who claims to deliver packages for Amazon, saying that the tech giant has even ordered drivers to stop their vehicles while the test is underway on Wednesday.
The man, who wears a blue vest with Amazon’s logo while seated in a vehicle, baselessly suggests the alert’s signal will effectively shut down all electronic communications devices.
Claiming to summarize a message from Amazon, the man says drivers will have a “down time” between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Oct. 4 and they should pull over and organize packages for their route until the test is complete.
“This is serious guys. Something is really going on. They’re targeting everything. Phones, laptops, tablets, TV,” the man says, speaking directly to the camera. “Everybody just be prepared because there’s something bigger to it than meets the eye.”
But there’s nothing nefarious about the routine test FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission are conducting Wednesday.
“There’s no truth to these claims,” Jeremy Edwards, a spokesperson for FEMA, wrote in an email. “The national test alert, or any alert issued via FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, will not make your phone or any other device ‘inoperable’.”
He stressed that phone operations are not disabled or interrupted when an alert is received, and users can simply click a message that pops up on their screens during the test to dismiss it.
If a phone is turned off before the test alert is sent and not switched on until after the test expires, it will not get the test message, Edwards added.
“The WEA alert tone is only played when the alert is initially received by the phone and stops as soon as the user clicks a button,” he wrote.
Such tests are required at least once every three years under federal law. The last nationwide test was Aug. 11, 2021, according to FEMA.
Wednesday’s test is slated to begin around 2:20 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and involves a 30-minute signal sent to radios and televisions by the Emergency Alert System and a similar one sent to all consumer cell phones via the Wireless Emergency Alerts system.
According to FEMA, the message to be broadcast will state: “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.”
Amazon also confirmed it sent no missive directing workers or drivers it contracts for deliveries to stop what they are doing for the duration of the test.
The company didn’t respond to additional inquiries on whether the man shown in the widely shared video even delivered packages for Amazon.
An attempt to reach the man through his TikTok account, where he’d originally posted the video, was also not answered Monday.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.