Why governments would ever use a private service for critical use baffles me.
Create your own emergency notification system!
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Why governments would ever use a private service for critical use baffles me.
Create your own emergency notification system!
They have one, but you also want information to be where people are. Especially if where people are is full of misinformation and rumours.
Japan has various earthquake notification systems. Tweets are just one more way to get the information to the people on a platform they use.
Create your own emergency notification system!
Those never turn out well.
Running their own mastodon instance should be viable though.
I remember seeing that they did have a fediverse account? This seems related to that
Yup see here:
It's also in the article linked above:
Luckily, the creators of the NERV App, Gehirn Inc, have created an app-based alternative for users to get information in real-time, as well as running a Mastodon account.
The Los Angeles/ California earthquake alert system worked just fine today.
Cell phones already have the emergency alert system they could just use that.
This is reason #856632 that you don't put vital government services on fucking Twitter.
Reminds me of Canada's emergency alert system.
A custody mixup happens a 5 hour drive away with the child last seen an hour ago? Top priority notification to every device capable of receiving SMS. And then a second one in French. And then a third one because they forgot to give any details about who or what to look for. And then a fourth one in French. And then a fifth one because they settled the mix-up. And then a sixth one in French.
Again, they are IMPOSSIBLE to turn off through general device settings because they're sent at the presidential level (aka. "nuclear launch detected"-level threat).
But an active shooter is going on a killing spree dressed as an officer? Better hope you've liked and subscribed to the right police association on Twitter! Because only one of them sent out anything, and nobody sent out an emergency notification at any level.
There are government text messages and local websites and all sorts of ways of reaching people. Unfortunately, X probably reaches ten times as many people. I think a diversified approach makes sense.
That being said, us gov has sent the text messages and that seems to be the best way to do it. Everyone has a phone. And if you don't, then you like to live on the edge.
All cell phones connected to a Japanese network received a notification regardless of their carrier, brand or what apps they installed.
This is already way better than whatever reach X provides.
Yeah, and kinda renders this thread and article pointless. X serves a redundant feature. Who cares if they treated a government like any other paying customer (like shit)? Bashing X is trendy and this article is just another one. I say this never having had Twitter, nor X, and I just don't care. I also don't own any MuskBrands™ stock or anything.
Or any other service, that like Twitter, is a closed for profit service of a multinational for profit corporations.
It's almost like trying to run the world on social media was a shit tier idea.
It was a good way to offload responsibility for something actually working.
With social media the unreliability card has been played (by us, asocial nerds, killjoys and neckbeards) and beaten (by them, normal sane social successful people) 10+ years ago, so even when it's a serious role being discussed, that card can't be played again.
NERV already has a Mastodon server.
They already announced last year that they want to move away from Twitter.
How about avoiding commercial platforms when it comes to vitally important official communication?
Love it when corporations have more power than government entities.
The dystopian future is coming faster than ever
Letting people senselessly get injured or die seems to be a common theme in Elon's ventures, so I'm not all that surprised about this.
Twitter was useless but X is just a vanity project at this point
It definitely makes headlines worse anyway
Just say twitter. Calling it "x" will literally always be silly and cumbersome.
I just call it twitter because I like dead-naming it.
@L4s Just FYI the NERV app mentioned on the article is not government official. (Althought I believe it uses government oficial APIs for earthquake detection)
That’s a bot account BTW. There’s a flag next to the name to indicate that but I guess it’s not visible on mastodon.
Time to switch to mastodon.
Did you even bother to read the article?
Luckily, the creators of the NERV App, Gehirn Inc, have created an app-based alternative for users to get information in real-time, as well as running a Mastodon account
NERV announcements got blocked? I guess he's not getting in the robot after all
Mastodon is a thing and they will own their instance.
Doesn't help if people don't use it.
That said, they should definitely stop using the thing formerly known as Twitter.
Use news outlets, public radio and TV and SMS alerts, those are "correct" ways of handling such situations, social media is not.
Shouldn't they use every means in their disposal? I know for myself I don't watch OTA or cable news, and I don't listen to public radio. Sure, SMS alerts are great, but the more widespread the messaging, the better.
Society if people read the article:
I read the title. Had some thoughts and opinions. After reading the article, the thoughts and opinions remain the same.
The article lists prices for next level api requests but it's 5000 dollars compared to the 100 that the non profit is already paying. They encouraged users to download their app to receive potentially life saving alerts.
I summed up the article in three sentences.
If only there was some sort of legal agreement that should and could be reached when the govt wants to use some private platform to communicate something important to people. If only.
I remember reading that Twitter was pretty famous on Japan so that's why they are still there.