Did the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) launch a test in Hungary on October 4, 2023, and send English and Spanish messages to people's phones? No, that's not true: FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tested their emergency alert system in the US, not in Hungary.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) which was published on TikTok on October 3, 2023.
The video shows a screenshot saying:
Word began to spread that on October 4th a FEMA test would start in the air, and messages in English or Spanish will be received on the phones. I don't know if this is a scam or a test for the vaccinated, but I recommend everyone to take out the sim cards at the specified time, when the testing is taking place.
(Translated from Hungarian by Lead Stories Staff)
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Oct 4 15:24:04 2023 UTC)
FEMA and FCC tested their emergency alert system on October 4, 2023. According to an official announcement, this was a nationwide test in the U.S. Messages were sent to cell phones, radios and televisions in the U.S. The test warnings were sent in either English or Spanish to phones depending on the language settings of the wireless handset. FEMA is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security that has no right or competence to perform tests of any kind in Hungary.
The test in the U.S. had nothing to do with vaccination and was not specifically sent to vaccinated people. According to FEMA, the purpose was "to ensure that the systems continue to be effective means of warning the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level." There were several conspiracy theories spread around this FEMA test debunked by Lead Stories for example here, here and here.
