Astronomers who detect a credible signal from aliens after 2026 will be barred from announcing it publicly or sending any kind of reply until it has been painstakingly verified and reviewed through United Nations channels under a newly rewritten global first-contact code.
The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) has maintained 'post-detection' guidelines since 1989, drafted in an era before social media, satellite mega-constellations and deepfake videos. Those older rules assumed that the biggest problem would be scientific false alarms. The new reality is messier: a single ambiguous signal could now spiral into viral conspiracies, political grandstanding and, in the worst case, chaotic attempts by private actors to shout back into the cosmos.
