tl;dr: During Egypt's 2011 revolution, Vodafone was forced to broadcast pro-regime propaganda via SMS after armed authorities compelled compliance, illustrating how emergency alert infrastructure can be weaponized. The author, who worked on the UK's Common Alerting Protocol adoption, questions whether network operators can or should refuse government alert requests, citing a recent UK wildfire alert as a benign example that nonetheless raises abuse concerns. The piece concludes that designing an alert system that is both compulsory and resistant to misuse may be fundamentally impossible.