Turkey earthquakes: Did Google’s early warning system work? - BBC Newsnight

At 4.17am on 6 February a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey. In the days that followed, 50,000 people were killed.
But what's been barely reported is that Google was operating an earthquake early warning system in the country. The company claims it sent out millions of warnings before the quake hit.
But BBC teams in Turkey and Silicon Valley can't find evidence that this warning was widely received by people in the earthquake zone.
In this special report for BBC Newsnight, Anna Foster is in Turkey and James Clayton is in San Francisco.
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[@vj.joseph]

Don't depend on private sector always. Nations should start their own public service on earthquake warning.

[@LEONKING360]

I am from Adana, i have recieved the alert but 1-2 minutes AFTER the earthquake, while we were evacuating the building. I had both wifi and cellular the whole time

[@JamesSmith-qs4hx]

It's like having a rabbi in your pocket!

[@Mertzkul]

I was researching the subject myself. No one was warned about the first earthquake. Many people, including myself, received warnings in the second earthquake. The first possibility is of course internet outages. But I have data that the internet and network access is not cut off immediately. Here the system is not working. I think Google is committing a crime by advertising with a system that does not work.

[@stephengnb]

Factors can play a major part in getting an alert before an earthquake, such as the distance a person is from the epicenter (and therefore, possibly already feeling the earthquake), the person's Internet connection speeds, the distance to Google's earthquake detection alert servers, analyzing data from multiple sources to determine if an earthquake is actually being detected, etc. Not to mention if the government has Internet restrictions which has to filter Internet traffic, or any other number of possible reasons. Falsely advertising a feature is criminal, but I know Google's lawyers wouldn't allow them to advertise something that could end up getting them sued. It is also clear that most people haven't heard of it, so Google isn't advertising it.

[@savannahm.laurentian1286]

So, you're asking if technology made by one of the greediest, most shameless & wreckless companies in the world should have worked?

[@the_luggage]

Fantastic reporting. Thank you, BBC.

[@cforcombo28]

I was at Hatay during the earthquake and was fully awake before it. I was on social media. (writing a comment on Instagram) My phone was in my hand, i had wifi and cellular connection. I had my GPS turned on on a %100 Google supported Xiaomi phone. And i didnt get any warning at all. It just didnt work.

[@jujutrini8412]

Yes it is obvious it didn’t work. Turkish people were all over KZbin and twitter at the time talking about their experiences. I read a lot of chatter about the earthquake at the time and I live in a part of London where I have many Turkish neighbours so helped a tiny bit so that charity items to go over there - we talked about what was being said over in Turkiye. No one got that alert.

[@WienerWit]

As a person who was in the epicenter of the February 6th Earthquakes, in Kahramanmaraş city center - I can say that we didn’t receive any earthquake alert. I, as an iPhone user, can understand that I didn’t receive a notification and I can’t blame Google for that. But I live with my family, that night I was sleeping in the same room with my mom, who is an android user, I would definitely hear such a loud notification - Or my brother’s android phone. There was no notification in the first earthquake. For the second earthquake, there was no notification but this time there was no way of communication in Kahramanmaraş since the mobile providers stopped working - as a consequence of this reason, couldn’t able to get any notification again. I really want to thank BBC for creating such a content and questioning the system.

[@stephengnb]

If you're close to the epicenter, there's little early warning that can be done using this system. Your country should install sensors in the ground to detect the non-destructive P-wave and send alerts to phones that way, rather than rely on a third-party server, device manufacturers, etc. to detect the actually damaging waves.

[@thecaribbean8615]

This may improve as satellite internet matures with less dependence on communication systems that fail during earthquakes.

[@hakananac9309]

I have seen many people like Micah Berman throughout my professional career but I didn’t expect to see one as a Google employee.

[@gorkemyanaz1091]

- Citizens did not receive any warning in a series of earthquakes that occurred on February 6 in Turkey. - In the following days, the earthquakes continued, but the telephones were not networked.!!! - Even clocks stopped in earthquake zones and some surrounding cities.!!!! (I know what I'm saying.)

[@desigirlBea]

Internet providers toggle down their internet coverage at night as I have noticed this while doing speed checks at night.

[@user-qd2vv4tq5o]

I swear that guy at Google knew more about it then he was letting on about the reliability of their earthquake warning service, Look at the face expressions he is pulling, It says it all really, What they have done is criminal, And people should really sue them over this!!! That idea of having phones detect earthquakes was doomed from the start anyway, Phones aren't stationary because they are on the move with people all the time, Which causes vibrations... Investment would be better put towards the system like Japan and other Asian countries as well as California and Mexico where the sensors are in the ground, Not making phony phone features that just take your personal data to sell!!!

[@agrisea.original]

I had to configure my phone in order for it to work. I had no idea that this service was even on my phone until I watched this BBC video.

[@ganpagol2583]

A shallow Magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck under land 10 kilometer from Dhaka in Bangladesh in the early morning of Friday May 5th, 2023. I got the Google alert tune . I was surprised what happened in my mobile phone. After that I was happy for getting the smart alert system.

[@simitcicem]

what about morrocco????

[@carloabellana33]

In the Philippines recently, it saved so many lives as we are away from the epicenter. It gave us 60 second to run and go to safety.

[@mhiema2002]

Google earthquake alert system is helpful because it's working on my phone but the only I dislike about this feature is that it will only work if you have internet connection or connected to Wifi

[@mehmet.albyrk]

My brother living in the middle region of Turkey said that I got the warning from google a bit before the earthquake happened in daytime but interestingly I didn’t have any alert message

[@Mustafa-yq1de]

If the system worked at second earthquake the question should be was the system was off at the first earthquake. In these conditions can victims sue the google? Do they have right to do that?

[@jujutrini8412]

If people had received an alert it would have been all over twitter and KZbin at the time. Turkish people were all over the internet at this time talking about all aspects of the earthquake.

[@LEGENDA0015X]

I got a warning when an earthquake struck Jamaica in 2023

[@richard7645]

Nobody cares unless you're rich, pretty or dead.

[@Native_soul321]

That's the core ideology of White supremacy

[@Umerr]

I have an Android phone (I am based in Islamabad, that sees earthquakes quite often) but I have never received this alert but many of the people I know do.

[@legaciestr]

Titling the same video differently on the Turkish BBC and here shows how much you pander. It did not work. Should have titled the English video like that as well.

[@Joao-pl6db]

You are crazy to depend on Google for that. You need a government institution like all countries that has such system.

[@imronburgundy253]

Still ignoring the Dan Wootton story then.

[@jamm8284]

I'm sorry, did I miss the bit where you say Google said this software is 100% accurate? Earthquakes are notoriously hard to predict accurately, even with the underground monitoring systems 🤷‍♂️ Edit This whole report seems to be trying to say that if it wasnt for Google and that the system worked right, some people wouldnt have died, which is a ridiculous connection to make because it's not their responsibility to safeguard citizens of any country from natural disasters. It's also nothing to do with countries then being, well we dont need to monitor earthquakes because people have a mobile phone, and i doubt Google wastes its money lobbying the service, you said yourself it's already in the phone and works without permission of the user or government (it seems).

[@CatatonicImperfect]

what's with the defensive attitude? this report simply goes back and does a reality check on a claim by a big tech company. that's what we want.

[@bidenator9760]

Sure, it's not Google's responsibility to protect other countries. But if they claim that their emergency alert system works, and did activate in Turkey, they should be held accountable for lying or exaggerating.

[@iltenahmet]

They did, however, said their systems worked during the Earthquake in Turkey, which was a lie. On top of that, they put advertisements claiming that their product would work during an earthquake, essentially profiting off of a service that doesn't work. At the very least, they should be fined for misleading/inaccurate advertisement.

[@jamm8284]

@@iltenahmet it's a free service that you don't need to even say yes or no to, its automatically on all android phones and running all the time. Android didn't have to put it in the phones but it's just an extra attempt at helping people. If you noticed something happening and tried to tell someone about but they didn't get your message or they died anyway, are you responsible?

[@jamm8284]

@@bidenator9760fair enough that lad was fresh, he didn't have a clue how to handle questions like that. I was thinking what's an Amish doing at a tech company 🤣 It's an absolute free service that you don't sign up for or even intrudes on anything you do at all. I don't think that advert said it works every time, all the time. Proper seismologists couldn't make that claim about themselves and their systems. The earthquake was going to happen whether the alarm went off or not.

[@nurjanturdaliyev1276]

Кто тут после землетрясения в Алматы?

[@MAGAted]

so no real evidence it didn't work then

[@cagdas135]

Rather zero evidence that it worked.

[@MAGAted]

@@cagdas135 it doesn't say that though ?

[@MAGAted]

so hang on, can you give me the criteria that differentiates between 'worked', and 'worked properly' just so i know your not blowing hot air out your rear !@@fugo.

[@MAGAted]

great, so your good a cherry picking, now, what has google said about it, or doesn't their evidence count ? do you understand now ?@@fugo.

[@MAGAted]

@@fugo. No, theyve said it did work, and even the bbc has admitted some people got the alert Do you understand now

[@alpakajaa1996]

I am not convinced with googles response.

[@jujutrini8412]

He is most probably lying. Allegedly.

[@Mesamura810]

振動のデータから震源を特定できたとしても、震源の深さやマグニチュードを予測し、どの範囲がどのくらい揺れるのかを推定し、それに基づいた範囲のスマートフォンのみに警報を伝達するシステムにしなければ意味はない。揺れない地域に警報を発出してもオオカミ少年状態になりますから。

[@mertyldrm6625]

I saw a TikTok video who got an alert before/during the first earthquake, I can help you guys if you want.

[@monham5041]

Another way to monitor you. Noone can predict an earthquake. Just marketing BS.

[@stephengnb]

Of course, but Japan has technology to warn of an earthquake before the damaging tremors arrive in a location.

[@KaanOrantv]

Amazing reporting BBC. This guy is like a joke. The system clearly did not work. He should experience a real earthquake and then continue working on the product development. Then, I am sure he will not have the interview this cheerfully.

[@stephengnb]

If he works for Google, he most certainly lives in California where they do experience earthquakes. There are so many factors to whether your phone has enough time to warn you. Where was the epicenter(s) for the earthquake(s) they are referring to? Anybody at the epicenter would have no warning because they would be right on top of it as it was even detectable.

[@KaanOrantv]

@@stephengnb The earthquake affected 11 cities which is roughly 350.000 km2. And it lasted 100 seconds. I guess that was one of the reasons why it was so destructive. I believe 100 seconds should be enough to send a warning.

[@jesuschrist8]

People have to manually activate this feature on their Android Device. Please check your Android phones. You need to grant notification permission under Earthquake Alerts. Please do so now as it might one day save your life.

[@nicholaspeterwilliamjones]

Yeah, it's weird that the reporter doesn't mention this. Did they actually ask the people if they had enabled it?

[@JamesSmith-qs4hx]

It's like having a rabbi in your pocket..... I wouldn't.

[@auro1986]

news for bbc worked

[@Andy-dc7hr]

You are the beta tester. More half baked software features from Google. Remember the Pixel phones that wouldn’t call emergency services?

[@newlydiscovered-worldtoday5508]

They probably fall asleep at that time and disregard the alert.

[@LuciFeric137]

Do they have a nuclear war alert?

[@tucosalamanca4478]

hide and duck lol

[@Lsposedd]

In Turkey, a pulsed siren alarm is used for CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) situations but I don't really think sirens would go off. Even if, most of people would think that this is only a test and do nothing. Or they would brace for death because there is no such thing as a fallout shelter

[@robyn_southafrica]

Mother nature played technology.. believe and take note of the animals instead 🤨

[@EinEgomane2]

yeah you are right. We should use cameras and ai to find out if an earthquak is going to happen

[@NihilIslands]

I gave my prophecy to turkish gamers & devs in mount & blade warband crpg. And if they saved their lives. Triangulation earthquake proohecy

[@comacuma2869]

WETHER U GO TURKEY OR GEROGIA ,OR SYRIA,LEBANON ,LIBYA ,EGYPT ,MORROCO ,,,,,OR EVENNWHEN U TAKE OTHER GLOBAL SOUTH COUNTRIES ,,THE MAN FROM BRAZIL ARGENTINA MEXICO THERES MORE OF SADIQ KHAAN ,,,THAN THERE IS ANY OF THAT IN UKKKK Hahahahahhaaaaa

[@DJFAmenHeavy]

Who cares. It’s not Google’s responsibility

[@bidenator9760]

They didn't have to launch that service. Now that they did, it's reasonable to expect it to work, especially in a country where 9/10 people have Android.

[@Native_soul321]

Who asked for your care? Lol

[@DJFAmenHeavy]

@@bidenator9760 It’s free. They have zero responsibility

[@cagdas135]

It's also not your responsibility to kiss Google's ass. Don't be a simp.

[@hasherahmed]

hi