Hawaii's Governor Couldn't Tweet About The False Missile Alert Because He Forgot His Twitter Password

Hawaii Governor David Ige speaks during his yearly State of the State address in Honolulu.

HONOLULU, Hawaii — Hawaii Governor David Ige said on Monday that his efforts to promptly alert residents about a bogus incoming missile notification were slowed because he could not remember the login details for his Twitter account. Although Hawaii had recently become the inaugural state since the Cold War era to put missile-strike preparedness measures into place, state administrators seemed unprepared for such an occurrence after the false missile warning was unintentionally dispatched on the morning of January 13, creating panic among locals and visitors. A total of 38 minutes elapsed before officials distributed a second alert clarifying that the alarm was unfounded.

At a hearing convened at the Hawaii State Capitol on Friday, evidence surfaced showing that Ige had been told the warning was inaccurate two minutes after it had reached phones statewide. Yet Ige held off on sharing that news via Twitter for another 15 minutes. By that stage, other state officials — and even a high school student who merely rang the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency to confirm whether it was a mistake — had already spread word that the alert was false.

Ige acknowledged the lag while speaking with journalists on Monday after delivering his State of the State speech, during which he did not bring up the erroneous missile alert. When asked why he had not communicated news about the false alarm earlier, Ige said he had been placing calls to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and that he could not sign in to his Twitter account.

"I was in the process of making calls to the leadership team both in Hawaii Emergency Management as well as others," Ige said, according to the Star Advertiser. "I have to confess that I don't know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords, so certainly that's one of the changes that I've made," he said. "I've been putting that on my phone so that we can access the social media directly."

When questioned about his omission of the false alert from his State of the State speech, Ige said he did not feel it was fitting to raise the subject, and pointed out that he had already given multiple press statements about the issue.

Ige's communications director, Cindy McMillan, told BuzzFeed News on Friday that once the governor learned the alert was false, he had to locate her in order to draft a communication, because her team runs his social media accounts. McMillan said that the governor's Twitter and Facebook accounts will continue to be handled by staff, with the exception of emergencies.

"Going forward, he will be able to log in on his phone to post in an emergency situation," McMillan said. "However, staff will continue to post to and manage both accounts on a day-to-day basis."

McMillan did not respond to two particular questions from BuzzFeed News asking whether the governor now knows his password.

Michelle Broder Van Dyke

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