Residents of Curitiba, Rio, São Paulo and DF receive sound alert with the word 'misanthropy' on cell phones
Residents of several cities in Brazil receive false alert from Civil Defense
Residents of Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and the Federal District reported having received, between the night of Friday (19) and the early hours of this Saturday (20), an extreme audible alert on their cell phones. In the message, only the word "misanthropy" appeared.
The National Civil Defense reported that the platform used to send alerts was taken offline at 1:30 am this Saturday (20), after suffering an invasion. According to the agency, the shot was made remotely by someone without authorization and may have been the result of a hacker attack.
"The National Secretariat for Protection and Civil Defense of the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development will contact the Federal Police and will take steps to reconnect the system as quickly as possible, when all security conditions are reestablished," he said.
The alert generated surprise and confusion on social media, as the term has no relation to weather phenomena or emergency situations. "Misanthropy" means aversion or rejection of humanity, and can also refer to social isolation, melancholy or deep sadness.
In a statement, the Civil Defense of Paraná stated that it did not issue the message and said that there is no risk situation in Curitiba.
The government of Paraná reinforced that "the alert issued a few minutes ago did not come from the Civil Defense of Paraná" and stated that there is no severe event predicted for the capital of Paraná.
The Civil Defense of São Paulo also said, in a note to TV Globo, that it did not send any alert. According to the agency, the Cell Broadcast tool - technology used to send severe and extreme alerts - is managed by Anatel. The São Paulo Civil Defense also stated that it contacted the agency to investigate the case and informed that the tool had been disabled until the situation was clarified.
In addition to the sound alert, residents of Rio de Janeiro also reported having received text messages with unusual content. In one of the records sent to g1, the message attributed to Civil Defense said: "misanthrope ADRESS RJ donkeys dms pprt". The text, with writing errors and no context, reinforced the suspicion of failure or misuse of the system.
Print shows text message attributed to the Civil Defense received by a resident of Rio de Janeiro in the early hours of this Saturday (20).
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What does 'misanthropy' mean?
The word "misanthropy" caught the attention of users and became the target of searches on the internet. According to the Michaelis dictionary, the term means aversion or rejection of humanity, and can also refer to social isolation, melancholy or deep sadness.
On social media, the message quickly became a meme. Some internet users joked about the situation and associated the alert with fictional scenarios, such as alien invasions and mysterious messages.
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Rio de Janeiro resident shows extreme alert received on cell phone with the word "misanthropy".
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Source: G1