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> If their Twitter account is the only place I can hear about active shooter threats in my area ??? Do you actually use your local politicians Twitter to see i

> If their Twitter account is the only place I can hear about active shooter threats in my area ??? Do you actually use your local politicians Twitter to see if there's an active shooter?

InitialLastName 3y ago
This is a less extreme example, but my town uses its Facebook page as the primary means of reporting concerns (e.g. potholes and other road maintenance issues, parking exceptions).
tomohawk 3y ago
Many local governments post things to social media sites instead of on their own infrastructure, so blocking access to these sites prevents people from these important communications.
- warner25 3y ago
  I've been beating this drum for a few years now, and the key point that upsets me is precisely that they already have their own infrastructure, like you said, but they have practically abandoned those official .gov, .mil, .org websites (leaving behind stale information and dead links) to use Facebook and Twitter instead. I think this is mostly a problem among small towns, counties, etc. so residents of big cities may not notice it as much (like the death of real local journalism). I think it usually boils down to the fact that it's easier for a lay person to update a Facebook or Twitter page than it is to maintain their own website, and IT people are expensive. I'm in the US Army, and "Big Army" at the top level does OK with its websites (e.g. army.mil), but it also consists of many geographically distributed, semi-independent, sub-organizations (units) that each have a handful of people doing public affairs work. The official websites at those lower levels have been rotting for years, and public affairs folks have freely admitted to me that they don't know how to update their official websites besides changing the photo and biography of the new commander once every two years.
CoastalCoder 3y ago
This may be easier to relate to: During the pandemic, my state governor had an official Q&A regarding the state's policies, on Facebook. I couldn't participate without accepting Facebook's T&Cs. I'm not sure if that was illegal, but I'd like it to be.
- tayo42 3y ago
  What's the alternative though? Can we expect local governments to develop and run qa websites and apps? The only realistic option is to have them rely on a 3rd party service and and service is going to have some kind of sign up agreement you need to accept before using.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - anigbrowl 3y ago
    Can we expect local governments to develop and run Why not just have a template app that's open source and publicly financed, and the only local part is configuration data like name of the mayor, specific phone #s etc. US local government is already massively duplicative and wasteful.
  - CoastalCoder 3y ago
    One possible alternative would be a moderated, call-in group phone call, like companies sometimes have for quarterly investor / analyst calls. Open governance sometimes requires considerations, e.g. public access, that aren't always crucial for private commerce.
  - marcosdumay 3y ago
    > Can we expect local governments to develop and run qa websites and apps? Actually, yes, we should expect this.
    - bmelton 3y ago
      There would still have to be terms of service to accept or decline, and if those terms included prohibitions like "you are not allowed to hack our servers or spam them to a crawl" then it still makes sense for a decline to result in an inability to use the service
cooper_ganglia 3y ago
I think it's less about the practical use case and more about if there is an official government agency whose responsibility it is to make the public aware of dangerous events, that agency should not have the right to selectively choose who may or may not be able to access that information, based on the sole discretion of the police department's social media manager.
shinjitsu 3y ago
Well The local governor of Hawaii used twitter to cancel a missile alert - so it isn't that wild an idea https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/23/16923080/hawaii-governor-forgot-twitter-password-during-false-missile-alert-crisis https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/23/16923080/hawaii-governor-...
happytiger 3y ago
It’s definitely the first place I turn to for real time updates about stuff like this. When there was murderer on the loose recently where I live we definitely watched Twitter more than anything else for updates. The traditional media was incredibly delayed and their reporting was awful and inconsistent. When our home was in trouble due to major wildfire, local journalists and citizen journalists on YouTube and Twitter was the most reliable place for updates. Where else would you recommend besides Twitter/X and official channels? I don’t see why government officials who are performing paid work as public government officials should be allowed to hide or delete access to their work in any capacity. If they don’t want to expose themselves to the public then don’t use the channel to communicate in the first place. You don’t have to use social media for official communications.

> If their Twitter account is the only place I can hear about active shooter threats in my area ??? Do you actually use your local politicians Twitter to see if there's an active shooter?

InitialLastName 3y ago

This is a less extreme example, but my town uses its Facebook page as the primary means of reporting concerns (e.g. potholes and other road maintenance issues, parking exceptions).

tomohawk 3y ago

Many local governments post things to social media sites instead of on their own infrastructure, so blocking access to these sites prevents people from these important communications.

warner25 3y ago
I've been beating this drum for a few years now, and the key point that upsets me is precisely that they already have their own infrastructure, like you said, but they have practically abandoned those official .gov, .mil, .org websites (leaving behind stale information and dead links) to use Facebook and Twitter instead. I think this is mostly a problem among small towns, counties, etc. so residents of big cities may not notice it as much (like the death of real local journalism). I think it usually boils down to the fact that it's easier for a lay person to update a Facebook or Twitter page than it is to maintain their own website, and IT people are expensive. I'm in the US Army, and "Big Army" at the top level does OK with its websites (e.g. army.mil), but it also consists of many geographically distributed, semi-independent, sub-organizations (units) that each have a handful of people doing public affairs work. The official websites at those lower levels have been rotting for years, and public affairs folks have freely admitted to me that they don't know how to update their official websites besides changing the photo and biography of the new commander once every two years.

CoastalCoder 3y ago

This may be easier to relate to: During the pandemic, my state governor had an official Q&A regarding the state's policies, on Facebook. I couldn't participate without accepting Facebook's T&Cs. I'm not sure if that was illegal, but I'd like it to be.

tayo42 3y ago
What's the alternative though? Can we expect local governments to develop and run qa websites and apps? The only realistic option is to have them rely on a 3rd party service and and service is going to have some kind of sign up agreement you need to accept before using.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- anigbrowl 3y ago
  Can we expect local governments to develop and run Why not just have a template app that's open source and publicly financed, and the only local part is configuration data like name of the mayor, specific phone #s etc. US local government is already massively duplicative and wasteful.
- CoastalCoder 3y ago
  One possible alternative would be a moderated, call-in group phone call, like companies sometimes have for quarterly investor / analyst calls. Open governance sometimes requires considerations, e.g. public access, that aren't always crucial for private commerce.
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  > Can we expect local governments to develop and run qa websites and apps? Actually, yes, we should expect this.
  - bmelton 3y ago
    There would still have to be terms of service to accept or decline, and if those terms included prohibitions like "you are not allowed to hack our servers or spam them to a crawl" then it still makes sense for a decline to result in an inability to use the service

cooper_ganglia 3y ago

I think it's less about the practical use case and more about if there is an official government agency whose responsibility it is to make the public aware of dangerous events, that agency should not have the right to selectively choose who may or may not be able to access that information, based on the sole discretion of the police department's social media manager.

shinjitsu 3y ago

Well The local governor of Hawaii used twitter to cancel a missile alert - so it isn't that wild an idea https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/23/16923080/hawaii-governor-forgot-twitter-password-during-false-missile-alert-crisis https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/23/16923080/hawaii-governor-...

happytiger 3y ago

It’s definitely the first place I turn to for real time updates about stuff like this. When there was murderer on the loose recently where I live we definitely watched Twitter more than anything else for updates. The traditional media was incredibly delayed and their reporting was awful and inconsistent. When our home was in trouble due to major wildfire, local journalists and citizen journalists on YouTube and Twitter was the most reliable place for updates. Where else would you recommend besides Twitter/X and official channels? I don’t see why government officials who are performing paid work as public government officials should be allowed to hide or delete access to their work in any capacity. If they don’t want to expose themselves to the public then don’t use the channel to communicate in the first place. You don’t have to use social media for official communications.