"A test for something more sinister": Cell phone outage map conspiracy theory erupts online in wake of AT&T blackout 

On February 22, a major cell phone service provider, AT&T, reported an outage across the United States, impacting over 70,000 users’ ability to make calls and send texts, as reported by Reuters.

Following the outage, a flurry of conspiracy theories emerged online. As per The Mirror UK, cyberattacks, apocalypse, hacking by foreign governments, aliens, government involvement, and solar flares were some of the theories that surfaced on the internet.

Adding to the speculation, a map also emerged on X, indicating that two Republican-majority states, Texas and Georgia, were among the ones vastly affected by the outage. However, the authenticity of this map remains unverified.

Amidst these theories, netizens claimed government involvement, citing that AT&T allegedly shared several government contracts and was reportedly working under its influence.

In this regard, X user @dom_lucre claimed that the solar flare conspiracy theory was an alleged cover-up and the outage was “a test for something more sinister.”

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“This is just the beginning”: Conspiracy theories surface online in the wake of AT&T outage

According to AP News, on Thursday, thousands of users across the USA suffered major and prolonged cell phone service blackouts, blocking calls and text messages, and showing SOS alerts.

Outage tracker Downdetector’s reports, as obtained by the news outlet, revealed that the disruption first occurred around 3:30 a.m. ET, impacting nearly 73,000 users initially.

Later, around noon, 58,000 incidents were tracked in locations including Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta, among others. By 9 p.m. ET, the cases were down to less than 1000.

Following the cell phone service blackout, several conspiracy theories surfaced online, however, government involvement seemed to top the list. Many X users held the Biden administration allegedly responsible. Maps of the outage region also emerged online, leading many to claim it was allegedly the doing of the ruling government.

Meanwhile, some speculated that the network blackout resulted from a malicious cyberattack targeting the government. Others believed it was a sign of an impending doomsday, as shown in the recent Netflix movie Leave the World Behind.

Notably, AT&T dismissed all rumors and clarified that the blackout was a result of a “technical error in coding” and nothing more. No other explanation was provided.

AT&T, on its website, wrote:

“Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyberattack.”

Later, they also added how they were taking steps to ensure that their customers don’t face similar problems in the future.

However, social media users flooded the platforms, reacting to the incident. Here are some of them from under @dom_lucre’s post and elsewhere on X.

Alongside AT&T, there were also reports of other cell phone service providers being down, including Cricket Wireless (owned by AT&T), which reportedly saw over 9,000 outages as per Reuters but got restored by noon.

Verizon, UScellular, and T-Mobile service users also complained of disruptions, however, both companies claimed that their operations were running normally and people were only facing issues when they attempted to connect with an AT&T user.

According to AP News, the FBI and Homeland Security got in touch with AT&T about the blackout, as confirmed by National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby. He also claimed that the company assured them that it was not a cybersecurity incident. The Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also got involved.

Concerns were also raised on Capitol Hill. Republicans Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Bob Latta issued a joint statement to the press, saying they were “working to assess today’s disruption” to figure out the cause and implement preventive measures for the future.

By late Thursday, all services were fully restored, bringing relief to the affected users.