Ask HN: Why did Apple disable the 'Presidential Alert' system on iOS? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why did Apple disable the 'Presidential Alert' system on iOS?

This was noticed by my wife and it is bizarre and one could argue dangerous if it is fully crippled. She was changing her Amber Alert notification settings when she noticed one alert type was completely missing on her iPhone. I haven't seen much news about it till recently. I'm curious if anyone else has more insight into this. I think it's dangerous if they've fully crippled the service as it could be used during a real national emergency and leave iOS users exposed and unaware to take precautions.

View on HN

As a bit of context, this post is entirely false — Apple has made no changes to the federal alert system — but it does serve to put a nice techie "just asking questions" gloss on a conspiracy theory promoted by L. Lin Wood that has been spreading like wildfire in alt-right circles.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/apple-emergency-broadcast-...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202743

> *In some countries, you may not be able to disable Government Alerts.

Maybe it is already enabled and iOS does not show if it is enabled?

While I get that, it was still shown above the other alerts without any option to toggle it on or off. Now it's just flat out gone from settings. For clarity I am in the USA.

Under government alerts, I have a toggle for Emergency Alerts on 8+. I believe that includes the presidential alert.

No, the Presidential Alert may not be disabled (as a matter of regulation), but the other alerts may be. Different phones have different levels of control for what can be toggled, which I believe is up to the manufacturer.

However it is a separate (system) apk on most Android phones, which can (as a matter of fact) usually be disabled, if you do some digging. It's disabled on my (non-rooted) Samsung, as it has been for years.

I wonder if it just means I'm not within range or something, service is kind of spotty, but I was just asked about this by a friend as well, so I assume my wife and myself are not the only ones who noticed this.

Edit: After thinking about it, my wife noticed it at her job near Downtown where service isn't typically spotty, so I'm not sure why she wouldn't see that options but others would. We do have the latest iOS updates though.

This is an extremely misleading post. It is enabled, just not configurable. Please consider deleting it as it feeds into the tech vs Trump conspiracy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com