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It always irked me that public institutions embraced Twitter as a primary means of communication in many cases. It never seemed right that a private company was
by zmmmmm 3y ago
It always irked me that public institutions embraced Twitter as a primary means of communication in many cases. It never seemed right that a private company was being put in between public functions and the the public which depends on them. Not to mention, since I live outside the US, a private company in another country. I even wrote complaints to one local public body to ask them to set up a communication channel that wasn't controlled by a foreign private entity. Of course, they laughed at me and I went away like a good citizen.
It's hard to map this onto my framework of "reasonable paranoia". Even while I felt uncomfortable about it, it never occurred to me that Twitter would actually cut off access. Now here we are.
- celdon25 3y ago[flagged]
- jdelman 3y agoIt's not "fake news" that you now need to be logged in to see tweets. Whether or not this is truly temporary remains to be seen. But we now know this is something Twitter is willing to do, even if they undo it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Marcan 3y agoDo you still take this man at his word, after all he's done?
- stainablesteel 3y agoyes
- coliveira 3y agoCorrect, he's the biggest con man in the world.
- jjulius 3y agoThe article itself is well over 6 hours old. While you may technically be correct about the fact that Musk's tweet counts as comment, an article that has yet to be updated should be called "now inaccurate", not "fake news". The way you've misrepresented this is more akin to fake news than the article is, and likely to get your comment flagged/heavily downvoted.
- celdon25 3y ago> an article that has yet to be updated should be called "now inaccurate", not "fake news". I disagree. It's a lie by omission, as same-day corrections on articles are a journalistic norm. By not doing so here, it conveniently furthers the Anti-Elon agenda that the tech media, including Techcrunch, has been confirmed to be pushing. Means, motive, opportunity. There is a huge ethics problem with "journalists" in the USA, and they need to be not treated with kid gloves here (such as your lukewarm "now inaccurate" language). But what do I know?
- jjulius 3y ago>But what do I know? Certainly not the inner workings of Techcrunch.
- Dylan16807 3y agoHaving one detail wrong wouldn't be fake news either!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- SamoyedFurFluff 3y agoIt’s ridiculous to blame this on being “data pillaged” when Twitter intentionally priced out any legitimate ways to access Twitter algorithmically.
- MattGaiser 3y agoOn the other hand, public institutions have long been criticized for not communicating where the people are. Notices posted on their own website are unlikely to read by anywhere as broad an audience. Plenty uses newspapers, but even my grandparents get stuff from Twitter before the paper now, if just from younger people sharing it with them. I agree Twitter shouldn't be the only channel, but it is where the people are, or at least were.
- vhcr 3y agoI don't see why they can't do both, have an official website (with RSS), and automatically share the links on Twitter.
- sneak 3y agoSetting up an official website with RSS that allows nontechnical users to securely post in real-time costs time, money, and expertise. Signing up for a Twitter account is free and can be done by literally anyone in the organization.
- lolinder 3y agoThese days setting up a website costs $16/mo[0] and is so simple my 70yo father-in-law did it. I'm pretty sure most public agencies can find that in the budget. [0] https://www.squarespace.com/pricing https://www.squarespace.com/pricing
- sneak 3y agoThey asked why, not what the difficulty/cost delta is. The answer is because Twitter is easy and free. Self-publishing is neither.
- toofy 3y agowell, it was. now we’re seeing these companies—who used as one of their primary selling points to lure in talent, “come help us make the world a better place”—in real time, one by one, we’re beginning to see their true motives and true colors come out as they begin to close up public access. i think the real question is when, not if, we end up with public infrastructure.
- onlypositive 3y agoFacebook cut off access to Australian fire brigade pages, among others.
- wahnfrieden 3y agoFacebook news is shutting off in Canada where there are currently wildfires. I'm leaving no comment on why.
- betaby 3y agoHow's USA based Facebook related to wildfires in Canada? Check cbc.ca for the updates related to wildfires.
- HWR_14 3y agoDue to some revenue sharing rules that just went into effect in Canada, designed to prevent news from being absorbed by Facebook and never leading to the ads being seen on the original website, FB is closing link. Sharing to cbc.ca. People can go there directly, but eventually safety information being everywhere is a good thing.
- betaby 3y agoPerhaps it's only me, but Facebook is the last place I would think of to search information about wildfires.
- jhugo 3y agoMany people I know seem to basically rely on stuff they need to know showing up in their Facebook (or sometimes, even more bizarrely, Instagram) feed.
- tourmalinetaco 3y agoA large chunk of old people in my life unfortunately still rely on FB for some news
- Solvency 3y agoI mean... for decades, the public institutions instead relied on private TV networks to do all of their communications. And propaganda. And they still do. How is Twitter any different than FOX News or CNN?
- ShadowBanThis01 3y agoThey weren't "private" TV networks. They are licensed by the government to use our airwaves, which are accessible by all (except CNN, which is cable). There's a big difference. Governmental and public institutions should not be relying on Twitter for their communications. It's unprofessional at the very least.
- rglullis 3y agoI keep hoping that in the near future we will think of companies/NGOs/influencers/Governmental Institution on twitter as using aol.com for their email.
- sowbug 3y agoThey absolutely were/are private, even if they used a publicly owned medium to distribute their content. Other than an hour of public-service airtime on Sunday mornings, and lax FCC enforcement of a decency standard, those private TV networks can do/say anything they want. You wouldn't put quotes around that word for cell-phone companies using licensed bandwidth, or airlines using public airspace, would you?
- ummonk 3y agoI don’t have an issue with governments using “private” cell phone networks for amber alerts, if that’s what you’re asking
- keernan 3y agoThe broadcast companies are subject to FCC requirements that they must broadcast government emergency notifications. They do NOT have the power to shut down access the way twitter just did.
- ncr100 3y agoPrivatization is a thing beyond seemingly fundamental online services. Local water systems in Guam are privatized, much to the chagrin of local activists. Elsewhere, there's an article on the guardian just like yesterday about the impact of privatization on either the UK's or some locale inside the UK, for their water usage. Basically the water department is now the highest debt entity in all water departments and it's the one that's privatized. Privatizing public data is a shortsighted thoughtless approach to public communication. So Play stupid games went stupid prizes.
- ImaCake 3y agoElectricity markets are a prime example of ideology winning over logic. In Australia, the eastern states have a privatised electricity market while Western Australia has a very limited market with agreements to hold a certain amount of gas fuel at a certain price. Currently the price of electricity is significantly higher in the eastern market than the "less free" western one.
- Nursie 3y agoYep, god bless our communist energy policy, while the eastern states were screaming about rocketing energy prices a year back, ours were stable because the electricity company is state owned and contributes profit to the public purse, and as you say a certain portion of gas has to be reserved for the local market. Coming from the UK I don’t want competition in basic utilities like there is there. I don’t want to have to shop around for the best energy price every year, or to be at the mercy of the free market on pricing for the most basic of necessities like power and water.
- Grimburger 3y agoThere's absolutely no evidence of privatisation driving up costs in Australia. It's the hysterical marching cry of young naive people railing against the ever-increasingly vague boogeyman of neoliberalism but the actual evidence doesn't back it up. You talk about ideology over logic while demonstrating that exact same thing. > The AER report contains no consistent correlation between higher bills and privatisation. > The ABS index of electricity prices across Australia, showing movement of electricity prices over time, also doesn't demonstrate a link between privatisation and price rises. > Whether comparing electricity bills, prices or the relative price index of electricity in each state, there is no consistent link between privatisation and what consumers pay for their electricity. > Experts say the biggest influences on what people pay for electricity are costs of transmission and distribution. They say these costs have risen in recent years irrespective of whether the owners of the transmission and distribution networks are privatised. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-25/fact-check-does-privatisation-increase-electricity-prices3f/6329316 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-25/fact-check-does-priva...
- sneak 3y agoPublic institutions now often require agreeing to the Google Account ToS to get public schooling. IMO this should be illegal.
- ChainOfFools 3y agoAnd if it's not Google it's Microsoft. Which is, and I can't believe I'm saying this, the lesser of two evils at this point. There's a 2003 me staring through a time travel portal absolutely aghast that 2023 me is saying something like this.
- doctor_eval 3y agoMicrosoft has always been an apex predator, like a lion or maybe a hippo. It can end you in a single bite, but at least you know what you’re dealing with. Google is more like a malaria carrying species of mosquito. Little bites that you barely notice, but in aggregate are actually much more dangerous. I know the metaphor is a bit stretched but even in the late 90’d it was clear what Microsoft did. Google has gone from “don’t be evil” to “this is the definition of open source” to …
- aetherson 3y agoHippos aren't predators.
- doctor_eval 3y agoTrue, but they are widely known as being one of the most dangerous animals in Africa; number 11 on this list [0]. So you (probably) know what you’re dealing with. Of course my point was that the mosquito, whose bite is far less “annoying”, is actually #1. [0] https://www.sciencealert.com/what-are-the-worlds-15-deadliest-animals https://www.sciencealert.com/what-are-the-worlds-15-deadlies...
- sneak 3y agoAll big tech companies that store non-e2ee data are equally evil, because they all by law must make that data available to government spies without a warrant. (They know this, and they still collect the data.) These same government spies run an international network of torture centers.
- tjpnz 3y agoNZ government was using Facebook almost exclusively to do that during Covid. If you didn't have a Facebook account you were basically stuck with TV news or radio. Online news sources would only link to the Facebook post.
- ekianjo 3y agoThey probably need to add some regulations around that... if anything government sources shoulf be published on many online platforms not just one
- ayakang31415 3y agoUnfortunately, we are living in a world where using private company's social media is the most effective way to communicate public announcement as lots of people are using it daily. I am not sure if people are going to install government social media app just to receive information pertaining to public matters.
- tourmalinetaco 3y agoAt that point “just” normalize RSS feeds. They serve an even better job for none of the centralization. My state already sends weather warnings via RSS, and I’m sure lots of other things I haven’t explored yet.
- deafpolygon 3y agoNo ad revenue can be made off RSS. Google made sure of that.
- tourmalinetaco 3y agoA government is not making ad revenue.
- willis936 3y agoThat was true yesterday. It doesn't seem true today.
- Retr0id 3y agoDon't forget to avoid reliance on a private company's app store while you're at it! You'd need to convince people to side-load an app from a government website, or install a government app store.
- mr_toad 3y agoWould you trust a government App Store?
- Papirola 3y agowasn't RSS meant to be an answer to this issue?
- 111111IIIIIII 3y agoRSS is good but unfortunately falls short for the building a monopoly use case. Such a shame. If only it were a more adaptable protocol.
- btw0 3y agoPeople are moving. https://redditmigration.com https://redditmigration.com
- refurb 3y agoIt never seemed right that a private company was being put in between public functions and the the public which depends on them. But why? It’s always been that way. Before Twitter, it was private radio stations, private TV stations or private newspapers.
- renewedrebecca 3y agoRadio stations & TV stations use public airwaves and actually (used to, not sure now) had to prove they were acting in the public interest to keep their licenses. Doing public announcements were one way they handled that function.
- refurb 3y agoThe internet is a public resource, anyone can “broadcast” on it. In the end it’s still private companies (with the exception of public broadcasters or websites).
- jeromegv 3y agoYou’re being obtuse. You were able to access those news for free. Without any account. Once you had a radio or a tv, it was free and accessible for everyone. Not the same for Facebook or Twitter. Even if technically free, you can be banned, or have your account deactivated because you didn’t give away your phone number as “security measure”.
- martin8412 3y agoOr simply because some algorithm thought you were a bot. Good luck complaining to Google.
- refurb 3y agoYou couldn't access cable news (with some of the highest viewership) without a paid subscription. It's not obtuse, there are a ton of similarities.
- 3y ago
- jupp0r 3y agoMost governments are not good at setting up websites.
- takeda 3y agoThat sounds like if the public institutions line Twitter, they should sub their own federated Mastodon server so they are in full control of it.
- jojobas 3y agoPublic institutions should have known better than rely on a private whim without any kind of obligation to make their feeds available. RSS is piss easy to configure, they should have done that and encouraged people to use their RSS aggregator of choice for important things.