14 ms·
I publicly owned twitter platform is complicated and presents a lot of problems. I think the federated model has a lot of appeal here, as it allows governments
by tedivm 3y ago
I publicly owned twitter platform is complicated and presents a lot of problems. I think the federated model has a lot of appeal here, as it allows governments to broadcast alerts out without requiring them to take on a large platform (and moderation responsibilities, which are really complicated for a government).
- zerodensity 3y agoWhat problems do you see with a publicly owned twitter variant?
- my123 3y agoIn an international world, which govt should operate it becomes a complicated matter.
- ebiester 3y agoEach government should own one. It doesn't have to be federated to be useful.
- Chabsff 3y agoA large social platform simply cannot survive without constant moderation that goes beyond strict application of the law. You need some form of community standards in place. A government agency governing what is acceptable speech is a bad idea.
- flir 3y agoSounds like it would work in pretty much every country except America.
- imwillofficial 3y agoAh yes, the world, long known for its lockstep dance of harmony.
- intrasight 3y agoWhy would such a twitter variant need moderation? We're talking about a government notification system. Only people posting would be government officials.
- Chabsff 3y agoA pure one-way notification system is not a "twitter variant", but a completely different beast altogether. The draw of the twitter-like approach is that the government messages are a portion of an existing stream of communication that people are already using/consuming.
- intrasight 3y agoThe article is about governments using twitter to send notifications. Lots - perhaps most - use twitter exclusively this way.
- viraptor 3y agoIf you're saying Twitter variant, that implies a social network using text+image communication. If you want a notification system instead, there are much better and usable ways to implement that. See https://www.emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/ https://www.emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/ for example.
- johaugum 3y ago> We're talking about a government notification system. This exists, and is called Wireless Emergency Alerts. Every phone sold in the U.S. today supports this out of the box.
- mholm 3y agoWireless Emergency Alerts are for emergencies. If you look at any government's twitter feed, the posts are either very much not emergencies, or in this post's context, too specific and numerous to use the system with. The government needs something besides a passive website and a highly active emergency alert system.
- dynamorando 3y agoIs NPR subject to these restrictions in the US?
- Chabsff 3y agoSince when is NPR a government-controlled platform?
- dynamorando 3y agoIt's not, though it does get partial funding from the US government. I've been for a few weeks now to try and unpack the ramifications of public funded social media. Blog post here: https://dynamorando.pages.dev/blog/the-public-web/ https://dynamorando.pages.dev/blog/the-public-web/ The most common refrain that I get whenever this topic comes up is "First Amendment" - meaning that public funded social media should not be in the business of moderation; though I often wonder how come NPR, PBS, BBC and so on don't run their own social media websites (based on your deciding flavor of ActivityPub instances.) I believe the German and Dutch governments run their own Mastodon instances, I don't understand at the moment why other governments don't follow this path.
- imwillofficial 3y agoIt is. You work for who pays you.
- bob-09 3y agoRight. NPR works for the public.
- ncallaway 3y agoThe problem where a platform that is truly bound by the first amendment would lose in the marketplace, because most people don’t want to be on a platform where Nazis can post as much as they want. Platforms that censor are going to win in the marketplace, because that’s what most people want in a discussion platform.
- ineedasername 3y agoI don't see any social network as a good answer in the context of this story. What's needed is robust public alert & notification infrastructure.
- ryukafalz 3y agoYeah, I think federated is the right answer. You don't need to run a public platform, but you can run the infrastructure for government staff and announcements while still reaching the broader network.
- chiefalchemist 3y agoOnce a week my phone buzzes with some sort of child-alert, abduction and/or storm warnings. How is what's needed in this case any different?
- delecti 3y agoThose are very annoying and usually useless, so many people turn them off (everyone I know does). And if you miss one for any of the many reasons that could occur in an emergency, I wouldn't know where to go to seek out those alerts.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoIt's not possible to turn off alerts of the highest authority, "Presidential alerts", without turning off the phone. All basemodem and smartphone manufacturers selling in North America hardcode this into the black box part of the firmware. (Which is part of the approval process and why you'll never be able to buy a 'fully unlocked' phone.) For example in Ontario, every alert is sent out at this authority.
- chiefalchemist 3y agoSo for that we blame...Twitter?
- delecti 3y agoWhere in my comment did I mention twitter, or imply anything about it? I was just saying that the automated phone alerts aren't a great fit for something like wildfire evacuation instructions. At the very least they shouldn't be the only avenue for that information. Twitter was fantastic for that kind of thing though.
- chiefalchemist 3y agoYou didn't. But the topic is public notifications and Twitter. You seemed to imply the alternative to Twitter isn't effective, within a thread that starts with Twitter isn't effective.
- londons_explore 3y agoMost governments already have that... it's called a website. Turns out they used twitter because that's where the users were.
- ghaff 3y agoPretty much. So you use a website and for people who don't use it that's their problem. My town also (used to have?) has an automatic phone system but I don't really pick up random calls and don't have a landline now so that's useless.
- ineedasername 3y ago>for people who don't use it that's their problem You're evacuating, driving along a highway, and during the course of your trip the available evacuation routes change. A website is useless here. The context of the conversation is emergency situations, that has to be taken into account when thinking about the required public notification infrastructure.
- ghaff 3y agoBut what is reliably useful at that point? Radio maybe? I'm not sure how Twitter or a Twitter clone is any more useful than a website. Phone alerts are probably the best choice at that point assuming you don't have them turned off.
- bombcar 3y agoTwitter can’t be better than a website because Twitter IS a website! What Twitter was is better than Facebook, the main other governmental alert platform.
- amrocha 3y agoHow is it useless? You're in traffic, you check Twitter on your phone, you change your plans. I can't subscribe to an RSS feed on a phone by default
- wizofaus 3y agoSurely SMS is more than sufficient as an emergency broadcast system. Which is one reason the increasing number of SMS spam/phishing messages is more than just a nuisance, it's seriously eroding trust in the system. I know people now that basically assume every SMS not from a known contact is spam. Governments should have a vested interest in actually doing something concrete to tackle it, I'm not even sure why it's so hard to solve.