First Emergency Warning Service Test, Millions Of British Citizens' Phones Shake Simultaneously For 10 Seconds

Illustration- (Photo: Unsplash/Neil Soni-neilsoniphotography)

JAKARTA - The UK will conduct its first test of the new emergency warning service, Sunday, April 23. Millions of cell phones are set to issue loud alarms and vibrate at 3 pm (at 21.00 WIB, DKI Jakarta time). The system emulates similar schemes in Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States and aims to warn the public if there is a danger to life around them. A message will read 'This is an Emergency Warning test, a new British government service that will warn you if there are life-threatening emergencies around.' The government hopes to use the system to warn people about issues such as severe flooding and fires. The alarm will sound 10 seconds even if the phone is quiet. However, this test disrupted entertainment and sporting events. Reporting from AFP in the news Channelnewsasia, Sunday, April 23, the organizers of the World Snooker Championships will stop the game shortly before the commemoration. Meanwhile, the Society of London Theater has advised its members to tell viewers to turn off their phones. Drivers have also been warned not to pick up their phones during testing. As for those who do not want to receive a warning, they can choose to leave the device settings. "Stay Calm and Continue. That's how the UK is and that's what the state will do when they receive this test warning atgery today," said Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden. "The government's number one job is to keep people safe and this is another tool on the device for emergency situations." Several Conservative figures have criticized the UK government's plans. Former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, for example, urged people to turn off the warning. "This goes back to the state of our caregivers, telling us, strangling us when otherwise they should let people continue their lives," he said. Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine, ex-wife of government minister Michael Gove, called the plan "scary". "This week, at 3 pm... the government intends to destabilize our collective cages by attacking our phones-and our privacy-with unreasonable emergency test signals. The idea is both scary and tiring," he wrote. "This is a reminder of the tyranny imposed on us all by the technology that has invaded our homes such as knotweed Japan, infiltrating every aspect of our daily lives," he added. But Total Edworthy, an international expert in the alarm system and professor of psychology at the University of Plymouth, the warning system is a positive development, although its first broadcast may surprise people. "Despite the message explaining that this is a test, I hope some people will be surprised," he told the Domestic Press Association. "If it makes people look at their phones and read the message, then follow up, it can be said to be successful," he added.

Members of parliament also criticized the decision to hand over a lucrative IT contract for the warning system to Fujitsu, a Japanese company responsible for mis software in the Post Office system that resulted in the sub-head of the innocent post office receiving fraudulent penalties.