The Government’s emergency alert system has backfired following the wildfire warning as thousands of Britons have begun looking into ways to block all emergency warnings.
Friday saw an unexpected alert sent to millions of mobile phones at around 7pm with no warning.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham urged Britons to take the warning “seriously,” however, following the alert, posts could be seen on various social media platforms asking for instructions to disable the alerts.
It is understood the alert was initially only supposed to be sent to those in fire affected areas; however, that decision was changed in the hours leading up to the alert on Friday.
The decision to send it to all Britons was based on calls from the Fire and Rescue Service.
Users on social media were furious with the alert, with one user accusing the Government of abusing the system.
They said on X: “You’ve totally undermined the purpose of the system. Send a text, for sure, but don’t abuse emergency broadcast systems to tell us about not using BBQs.”
Another said he thought “Putin’s finally launched the missiles. Then you check your phone and it’s the Government asking you to not have a barbecue.”
Sam Bowman, a public policy analyst, took to social media, posting a photo of the alert and asking: “How to opt out of those dumb alerts.”
Many critics of the alert warned that it put lives at risk by going off without warning.
Amy Felton, a journalist, wrote: “All you’ve done sending that alert out is put loads of lives at risk on the M61 making everyone panic thinking the world’s about to end. Outrageous.”
She said people were “swerving all over” and that “one man had pulled over onto the hard shoulder”.
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Multiple road users took to social media to criticise the alert.
One driver said the alert “genuinely made me about to swerve off and cause a fire myself”.
Another said they: “Almost crashed the car in confusion.”
A third said: “Confused the hell out of me, so dangerous,” adding “Which clown thought that was a good idea”.
The Conservatives have criticised the handling of the alert, raising concerns about “misuse”.
Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, said: “When the severe alert system was established it was made clear that there will be a very high threshold for its use based on strict criteria centred on an immediate risk to life.
“Its use at a national level clearly doesn’t hit that threshold and opens the door to future misuse of the system.
“Labour needs to publish who signed off the decision to use the alert and the criteria that they were using.”
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