We got calls, Facebook messages, and tweets from many of you asking us to verify...is the U.S. military staging a countrywide blackout?
It's a question trending online because of a Facebook live, watched nearly six million times before Facebook took it down this afternoon. You can see it on YouTube here.
"November fourth through the sixth, there will be an electronic magnetic pulse going through the entire continent of North America," a Michigan woman claims in the video.
She also states the Department of Defense put out a press release to announce it. We tracked down that release, which actually comes from the National Association for Amateur Radio.
It includes a note at the top, saying this training exercise will "simulate a power outage scenario."
Then we called up the U.S. Army and talked to Charlie Stadtlander with the Cyber Command division, who told us the same thing.
"The exercise will simulate a power-outage scenario. It will not impact any public or private communications." Stadtlander continued, "There will be no power outages of communications systems or electricity."
He also sent us the Army's press release about this online rumor.
When you look at the Army's radio system Facebook page, it spells it out even more -- going question by question:
So, we can VERIFY -- no -- the U.S. military isn't staging a countrywide blackout this weekend.
SOURCES
National Association for Amateur Radio
Charlie Stadtlander, U.S. Army Cyber Command
Army Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)