Solar flares? Russian nukes? Theories swirl for what caused cell outage

It was like a phone game, just no cell phone service.

Theories about Thursday’s chaos are swirling on social media, blaming America’s enemies Russia and China for the widespread blackout, as well as aliens, solar flares and even Netflix. Some have suggested that it may have caused a stir to promote eerily similar post-apocalyptic movies. Technical power outage.

No official reason has yet been given as to why more than 74,000 AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon customers reportedly lost cell phone service Thursday morning.

Some police departments stopped receiving 911 calls during the ongoing power outage, while smaller carriers such as Boost Mobile, Consumer Cellular and Straight Talk Wireless reported similar problems.

The most likely scenario focuses on the sun, with two solar flares occurring on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned that “strong flaring events” could include “temporary degradation or complete loss.” [high frequency radio] Signals are received on most of the sunlit side of the Earth. ”

But government agencies quickly dismissed the theory that the flare caused the loss of cell phone service.

“Conclusion: This outage appears to be coincidental and unrelated to the X-class solar flare,” NOAA told the Post.

“Based on the intensity of the eruption and associated phenomena, it is highly unlikely that these flares contributed to the widely reported cell phone network outage,” said a separate statement made by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. It says “low.”

X users point to terrestrial threats like Russia, and as the Post previously reported, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is considering a nuclear attack on U.S. satellites. It seems so.

“Russia has cut off our cell phone service!” 1 user declared.

“I don’t want to jump the gun here and blame Russia, but this cell phone malfunction is screaming,” said another. Said.

The outage comes a week after Russia’s destruction of satellites and allegations of nuclear development in space sent some lawmakers into full-blown panic.

White House National Security Press Secretary John Kirby said the riot at the Capitol was really about “Russia’s developing anti-satellite capabilities” that would fundamentally cripple the military and the American way of life. He admitted that he thought it was a possibility.

The names of other US enemies were also floated by mainstream politicians.

“Today’s cell phone outage should serve as a stark reminder of the cybersecurity threats America faces every day,” said Mike Rogers of Michigan, who is running for the U.S. Senate. Stated. I wrote to X:

“We must strengthen our defenses to protect Americans in the event that China, Russia, Iran, or their proxies launch an attack on our critical infrastructure,” Rogers added.

another user share to X: “I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but if I were, I’d blame the cell phone outage on China conducting an experiment.”

“Complete lockdown, nationwide phone outages. If aliens were to attack, now would be the perfect time…just saying,” said one X user. Posted.

Another far-fetched theory suggests that Netflix was behind the blackout as part of an elaborate marketing plan to promote the horror film Leave the World Behind, starring Julia Roberts. . An apparent cyberattack takes the satellite offline, and all communications between the characters go offline. Panic over social collapse.