Has the "Emergency Broadcast System" been activated? No, that's not true: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed to Lead Stories that the Emergency Alert System (EAS) has not been activated. If it had been, the protocol would be that the president of the United States would address the nation within 10 minutes of a national emergency. This has not happened as of November 23, 2021.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published by Facebook on November 20, 2021, under the title "πππππππππ πππππππππ ππππππ πππ ππππ πππππππππ - πππ ππππ πππ πππππππ πππ." It opened:
Now the rumor is there's taped confessions throughout the world.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Nov 22 21:02:48 2021 UTC)
The claims in the headline and video are not supported by any proof. Instead, an unknown narrator makes claims about the "deep state," COVID-19 and other topics.
This content is a mashup of material from various sources with a shocking headline intended to trick people into viewing the video. Lead Stories has previously noted this pattern of production in a clickbait video network. The audio track from one source is dubbed over a generic political slideshow or background, obscuring the original vlogger's identity. An avatar in the lower right gestures as if they are the narrator but the audio does not match their mouth movements.
The audio track is a stream of statements from an unnamed vlogger.
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) replaced the Emergency Broadcast System in 1994. The most recent national test of the Emergency Alert System was on August 11, 2021. The Federal Communications Commission is responsible for managing private-sector participation in EAS. The FCC's regulations eCFR :: 47 CFR Part 11 -- Emergency Alert System (EAS) detail the purpose of the system and how it works.
This is how the alerts are used:
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public warning system that allows the president to address the nation within 10 minutes during a national emergency. State and local authorities may also use the system to deliver important emergency information such as weather information, imminent threats, AMBER alerts and local incident information targeted to specific areas.
A FEMA spokesperson emailed Lead Stories on November 23, 2021, and confirmed the EAS is not activated:
FEMA's only EAS originations since Nov. 20, 2021 were the automated Monday morning Required Weekly Test (RWT) messages that cover the entire United States, including territories. The text of the message, which is not forwarded by broadcasters to the public, reads: "Test Message IPAWS OPEN CAP EAS Feed Configuration Test Message."
President Joe Biden did not address the nation with an announcement of a national emergency on November 20, 2021, the day the video was posted, nor did he at any time since he became president on January 20, 2021, as of the publication date of this article: November 23, 2021.
At 1:16 in the video the narrator claims:
They're still trying to catch some of the deep state rats.
A large part of the baseless and debunked QAnon conspiracy theory is that former President Donald Trump is fighting a secret international cabal of child sex predators made up of prominent Democrats, Hollywood liberals and the "deep state," having them arrested and sent to the Guantanamo Bay Prison where they are executed.
At 2:40 in the video the voice speaks about what seems to be a news report about the federal appeals court decision that called the Biden COVID-19 vaccine mandate "fatally flawed" and "staggeringly overbroad" but repeats the false claim that the COVID-19 virus has never been isolated:
It's staggeringly overbroad and raises serious constitutional concerns. It exceeds the federal government authority. So there you go, people. It's against our civil and constitutional rights. The court orders OSHA to refrain from implementing or enforcing mandate in any way. Do you hear that, people? The court said no. They've never isolated, there is no scientific proof that it exists."
Lead Stories has reported there is proof of the isolation of the virus my multiple laboratories. Clinicians and lab researchers working to stop the spread and to treat the most stricken of the millions of Americans infected so far with COVID-19 rely on the following proof: The SARS-CoV-2 virus has been isolated and its means and ease of transmission have been proven by multiple scientists working independently of one another. For examples, see this Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) footnote list of 25 published research papers about airborne spread of the virus.
