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Social Security Administration Moving Public Communications to X
- EasyMark 2y agoThe Social Security Administration Is Gutting Regional Staff and Shifting All Public Communications to X
- jmclnx 2y agoHow is this legal ? Can I sue because of this as a non Twitter user ?
- 9283409232 2y agoLegality does not matter to this admin. Sooner or later people will realize that.
- gryfft 2y ago[flagged]
- sharemywin 2y agoThat's what happens when you elect a convicted criminal. kind of seems obvious when you think about it.
- brendoelfrendo 2y agoThis is, honestly, an insult to convicted criminals, who can at least reform. Trump is not simply a convicted criminals, he shows no remorse for his actions and eagerly resumes his dubious and potentially illegal behavior at the earliest opportunity.
- FireBeyond 2y agoEspecially given Musk's propensity to ban users from Twitter.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- 1970-01-01 2y agoMeta/Facebook will sue them for you. Forcing people to signup for a social media service seems winnable with their breed of lawyers (scum).
- dralley 2y agoI'm not seeing an awful lot of evidence of powerful tech companies standing up against these guys in court right now.
- 1970-01-01 2y agoThe FTC trial for FB is in a few days https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Trade_Commission_v._Meta_Platforms,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Trade_Commission_v._Me....
- olyjohn 2y agoHow is Meta getting sued standing up to anything?
- jmclnx 2y agoFWIW I just contacted my reps, but since they are all chickins**ts these days, I doubt anything will happen. But with the ones in my State, I have a tiny chance they will try and stop this.
- rurp 2y agoThe company run by a guy who has been busy publicly sucking up to trump and bribing him is going to take a stand over this? I doubt it.
- int_19h 2y agoFar more likely that Zuck will make some kind of deal to make Facebook another "official platform"
- 1970-01-01 2y ago
- EasyMark 2y agoSeems like you could sue. You are paying into SS, and that should give anyone "standing" to open up a lawsuit. Seems like a great opportunity for a young law firm to make a name for themselves.
- mcintyre1994 2y agoYou should look up the targeting of law firms by Trump to understand why that’s unlikely. He’s found a method to destroy any law firm that opposes him, it’s obviously corrupt but Republicans don’t care so it works. My understanding is he passes an executive order that bans their staff from federal court buildings.
- maeil 2y ago> How is this legal ? Why do you keep asking this when these illegal acts have been happening every day for months? Genuinely, did you just awake out of a coma? > Can I sue because of this as a non Twitter user ? Good luck finding a lawyer, as they're almost certainly going to lose their job if the suit turns out remotely succesful.
- chasd00 2y agohow is it not legal? If you want to read their PR pieces go to the website and click on News or Press or whatever it is. Nothing is hidden from you because you're not a twitter user and you, as an individual, were never told of a PR anyway. It went to media agencies or via "dear colleague" letters (not exactly sure what that is but I'm 49 and have been paying taxes forever yet have never seen one in my mail ever)
- wasabi991011 2y ago> If you want to read their PR pieces go to the website They will not exist anymore. Literally the first words of TFA: > The Social Security Administration will no longer be communicating with the media and the public through press releases [...]
- chasd00 2y ago“Communicating with the media”! This is ridiculous /enough inet today
- kube-system 2y agoProbably under several laws. But I know one: Government officials (of which, Musk is now one) cannot block or limit speech they agree with, particularly when petitioning the government, which is explicitly protected under the 1st amendment. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/government-use-of-social-media/ https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/government-use-of-so... If Musk wants to run an official government communication channel, he will have to follow the laws that apply to communication with the government, of which there are many.
- ndsipa_pomu 2y ago> If Musk wants to run an official government communication channel, he will have to follow the laws that apply to communication with the government, of which there are many. What happens if he doesn't follow those laws? Is there any way that he would face justice considering the current situation?
- fzeroracer 2y agoThis must be the whole 'fixing corruption' thing people have mentioned over and over again. It's not corruption if you're just blatant about it.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- CoastalCoder 2y agoIs this the first time a citizen has been required to accept an EULA to receive official government communications? I have the feeling that the legality of this involves a bunch of concepts I don't know about. E.g., what constitutes an official communication, and how accessible they're legally required to be.
- dheera 2y agoI don't think it's the first time. Ever since all these stupid idiotic SMS confirmations became a trend they've all effectively required you to accept a {Verizon, AT&T, T-mobile} EULA. That said though EULAs aren't law. If it's just a contract between two parties, you are free to violate it and they are free to violate it as well.
- treetalker 2y agoContracts (government-enforceable agreements) are private law.
- Spooky23 2y agoIf an attorney sues the king, they get banished from courts. There is no law.
- EasyMark 2y agoI have no idea but I find it hard to believe that announcing government policy on a billionaire's platform is a really bad idea when a basic web page could do the same thing. How hard could it be to emulate a message stream on a .gov site that has the features of X? There have to be dozens of open source packages out there that could do it, and then they control it. At any point, twitter could shut down the stream and it would take weeks to months to set up a site to replace it.
- sailfast 2y agoTwitter has a Government EULA so agencies do have official accounts in line with regulation. That said, the agency itself is responsible for preserving its records in a way required by law, and is also typically required to post official requests and changes to the Federal Record.
- bilbo0s 2y agoIn that case, does it mean you can't ban people from X anymore? If it's the official government communication channel?
- ceejayoz 2y agoThe SSA cannot. They also can't block people. Musk can do both for them, though.
- InitialLastName 2y agoMore than that, should Musk one day not be in power, he would still have the capability to limit the visibility of, censor, ban, or otherwise manipulate the official communications of (at least one, I assume there will be more) a department of the federal government.
- new_user_final 2y agoX won't ban people, but they can ban account.
- slaterdev 2y agoI wonder what opportunity this creates for fraud. My grandpa doesn't even know what a tweet is. How hard would it be for a phishing campaign to convince my grandpa to click a fake tweet that says, "In order to continue benefits, please reconfirm your SSN here"?
- chasd00 2y agoread the article, these are press releases for the general public not requests or information for individuals.
- bearcobra 2y agoI think this still increases the risk of an individual falling for a scam. If the official press releases are happening there, it's not crazy for a senior to think other communication might as well.
- sidibe 2y agoGood thing that if they sign up Elon has totally cleaned Twitter up from all the bots! The demographic shift to a bunch of lovely young ladies on X is because of how much the next generation values maximal truth seeking
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoBut just think how much more valuable rug-pull coins/advertising became on X. A whole new target market of people being forced to move there and forced to view the algo.
- ModernMech 2y agoOf course it creates a massive opportunity for fraud. But no one in this administration cares about fraud and scams, haven't you seen the President's namesake crypto shitcoin? Or his namesake fraudulent university? Or his namesake fraudulent charity? The way this administration sees it, separating suckers from their money is virtuous -- if you're smart enough to defraud them, you should be rewarded for your efforts. But if you're dumb enough to be conned, you got what was coming to you. Be smarter next time or perish. This is the new morality.
- taco_emoji 2y agoThis is incredibly stupid. Anyone who voted for this administration ought to be ashamed.
- rnd0 2y agono one who voted for this regime is familiar with the idea of shame.
- apical_dendrite 2y agoThe Trump administration put a mid-level bureaucrat in charge of SSA after he violated a bunch of policies to try to give DOGE access to sensitive data and then publicly complained about being investigated for it. This guy has proven himself to be thoroughly incapable of doing such an important job in a disciplined, non-partisan manner. He admitted to cutting off the contract that allows births an deaths to be automatically registered in Maine (which caused parents of newborns to go in person to social security offices) because he didn't like how the governor of Maine spoke to Trump. He's pulled a bunch of other stunts, like threatening to shut down social security payments because a judge issued an order he didn't like. It's emblematic of what's happening across the government. Serious people are being replaced by incompetents who are there purely for their loyalty to the President and have no scruples or sense of public service.
- nxobject 2y agoTransitioning from detailed "Dear Colleague" circular letters to tweets seems like a great loss in transparency, but what do I know about government efficiency, anyway?
- matwood 2y ago> but what do I know about government efficiency, anyway? Absolutely more than anyone at DOGE...
- csb6 2y agoSeems like pointless friction to have to register and log into an online account just to view press releases by a government agency. Maybe there would be an exception for government agencies’ posts, but it doesn’t look like it. Surely it is a coincidence that this would also likely boost account registration numbers and ad impressions for Musk’s company.
- Loughla 2y agoWhen will the first lawsuit happen? Will it be conflict of interest or about a barrier to communication?
- epsilonaurigae 2y agosomeone who is permanently banned from Twitter and not happy about official public communications being behind a paywall/registration required situation on X might have standing if they’re literally not allowed to make an account to view them.
- nullkraft 2y agoThat's me. I'm one of those people who signed up, never posted a single comment, but somehow got banned for life. What am I supposed to do now? Edit: I should note that I am not allowed to follow anyone because of the ban.
- pseudalopex 2y ago> What am I supposed to do now? Are you willing to sue? Consult lawyers. EFF would be a good start.[1] [1] https://www.eff.org/pages/legal-assistance https://www.eff.org/pages/legal-assistance
- exe34 2y agowho will judge? who will enforce the judgement?
- SkipperCat 2y agoThe only good thing about this is that it will be reversed by the next administration. Of course, that's only if we have another election...
- rurp 2y agoI fully expect to be disappointed but what should happen if Dems ever get back into power (and that's a definite `if`) is to immediately cut off all dealings this corrupt guy's companies. No more government agencies on twitter, no more massive government subsidies for his companies, no more special regulatory treatment, and so on. Dems being Dems, they will probably just muddle around and do absolutely nothing to address all of this insane corruption, if they even get a chance to.
- maeil 2y ago[flagged]
- wilg 2y agoit is in fact the Republican party and its voters that got the US Trump
- maeil 2y agoWhich was made inevitable by the Dems. This isn't just a US phenomenon. Similar in Europe with far-right authoritarian parties' rise having been made inevitable by their "labour" parties. Though the Dems case is significantly worse, hence why Trump is worse than anything we've seen in Western-Europe. Look, what you're saying is obviously true, but you've got to look at the bigger picture. Trump didn't show up out of nowhere, there's at least 2 decades of relevant US governments. You can't just ignore all of that context. The Dems too, with very few exceptions (the Reps also used to have such exceptions pre-MAGA) only care about their own, individual power. 2016 says it all. If they were any better, they could've picked a hundred other candidates who'd have beaten Trump, and if he'd lost it's almost unthinkable the Reps would've nominated him again in 2020. They didn't, they knowingly picked one of the very few options who at the time would lose. They picked her for pure individual power structural reasons. Because that's what they do. 2024 all but confirmed that. They're only interested in image and optics to preserve their own standing, or they would've cut Biden far earlier. In HN terms: Stop anthropomorphizing Larry Ellisson. He's been a lawnmower for decades. And the same goes for the Dems.
- timewizard 2y ago> It could also impact people receiving social security benefits who rely on the letters for information about access benefits. “Do they really expect senior citizens will join this platform?” That's exceptionally ageist. Looking at the analytics on some of our apps which trend towards an older audience it does not seem like they, as a class, have any particular difficulty in using digital platforms. I also don't see how this is significantly different from their "dear colleague" letters which seem to be simply distributed on their website. I would not call this page a "better platform" for this information: https://www.ssa.gov/news/advocates/#advocates2024 https://www.ssa.gov/news/advocates/#advocates2024 > On the call, Kerr-Davis sounded resigned as she relayed news of the changes. “I know this probably sounds very foreign to you. It did to me as well,” she said. “It’s not what we are used to, but we are in different times now.” Yes. Expect change. In particular, use data driven decision making, and don't resist new communications technologies for parochial reasons. That all being said, there was certainly a better way to do this, but the position that nothing should change or the audience is too old to use digital technologies is somewhat absurd. This would all be so much easier if Musk didn't have some reason to hamfistedly involve himself in government. That guy so badly wants the world to commemorate a statue to him. I think we should just do it to shut him up for a while.
- anon7000 2y ago> I also don't see how this is significantly different from their "dear colleague" letters which seem to be simply distributed on their website. I would not call this page a "better platform" for this information: That page is public and accessible by anyone on the internet without an account. Not the case with Twitter. Share posts on any social media forums, sure, but a data-driven decision would not put information EXCLUSIVELY on a private, shared, for-provite platform owned by an unelected government official. That's just corruption. It's pretty fucking simple. A data-driven outcome would be "hey, we support hundreds of millions of people with different preferences and abilities, so we should probably use multiple platforms and ensure our information is as easy to access as possible." Which, btw, is not costly to do.
- timewizard 2y ago
- happytoexplain 2y agoDoes this seriously not violate a law? (a question I keep asking)
- PcChip 2y agoWe all keep asking… and I think we all know the answer
- chasd00 2y agoIt may if you could not view any PR except through twitter but that's not what's happening here. so, no it doesn't IMO. /not a lawyer.
- FireBeyond 2y ago> as it shifts its public communication exclusively to X Where will you be viewing them, then?
- 9dev 2y agoYou’re asking the wrong question. The department of justice should have stepped in so you would not have to ask, but they’re in it for good. Judges would be responsible for answering, but they have been warned to not interfere with the presidents agenda, or face personal consequences. So there is nobody left to answer it.
- FredPret 2y agoX.com was probably never the exclusive domain of thoughtful, well-intentioned posters. But lately has turned into a cesspool. Everytime I go on, I’m assaulted by fight videos, gambling ads, porn bots, ragebait, and the worst extreme takes from the left and the right.
- danso 2y agoIts very design — optimized for brief casual messaging — makes it difficult to do thoughtful discourse. And it became significantly worse when it monetized engagement; my “For You” page is flooded with rando bluecheck accounts who went viral for posting screenshots of other viral tweets
- FredPret 2y agoThat's the worst part - it's not even original slop. There's so much more of it than one can ever block. It got so bad I started reading paper books in my off time again.
- joshbaptiste 2y agoI login daily and see none of that.. I follow tech nerds and only see that type of content
- queuebert 2y agoSame here. When I hear people talk about how awful some platform is, knowing that it optimizes for their engagement, it feels like an accidental admission of their secret desires.
- aegypti 2y agoThe secret desires of the default, untuned FYP? Those categories are known quantities to the social algo curious. Can simply make a new genpop type Twitter account and immediately see them for yourself, the uncurated experience is heartbreaking.
- 2y ago
- boudin 2y agoI guess it says a lot about how desperate musk is to find users for his propaganda toy.
- anon7000 2y agoGovernment bureaucrat (Elon) owns a massive, private Social Media company. He has power to fire basically anyone, seemingly. Exclusivity agreements with private companies have NO FUCKING PLACE in public governments. If the owner of said platform is actually part of the government, it's pure corruption. Elon: divest from your private assets or get the fuck out of the government. Otherwise you're a corrupt official.
- vuln 2y ago> Otherwise you're a corrupt official. Seems like he fits in real well where he’s at.
- pengaru 2y ago"don't hate the player, hate the game" I feel likely sums up what would be his position on your comment
- mcculley 2y agoHe is not stuck in the game. He has agency, more than most.
- dullcrisp 2y agoHate what game? Democracy?
- SketchySeaBeast 2y agoRegulatory Capture?
- dullcrisp 2y agoOh well in that case I’ll echo sorcerer-mar’s comment.
- sjsdaiuasgdia 2y agoAnd that kind of half-assed flippancy is exactly why he needs to be removed from any government authority immediately.
- lm2s 2y agoX might well become the WeChat of USA.
- guelo 2y agoThe replies to every popular political tweet these days is all hard-right propaganda. Getting ALL older people onto that platform would be a bigger propaganda win for the right than Fox News.
- chasd00 2y agoi've commented about a half dozen times so this will be the last one. Just click the link and read it. They're talking about informing media of press releases. No one needs to be on twitter/x to read a PR, just go to the website. To be informed of a new PR, as an individual, the standard media companies inform their viewers/readers same as they always have.
- guelo 2y agoYou're wrong. "We are no longer planning to issue press releases..."
- fzeroracer 2y agoCan you quote the exact line for us that says this? Since the article seems to have lines that say the exact opposite in very clear language at the very top of the page.
- croemer 2y agohttps://archive.is/cY57S https://archive.is/cY57S
- 0xCE0 2y agoNot taking account this specific case, but the general habit that news, be it small or big, are published first/only on Twitter/Facebook/IG/Tiktok etc. is bad and sad. It is bad both for readers and organizations themselves. For readers, it is confusing and messy to know which platforms acts as a medium for communications. And usually these platforms require login, or nags for it, and doesn't show posts on chronologically to get clear understanding of the news events. For organizations, there is a risk of shadow banning/closure of account, therefore not having any control of archivability and visibility of communications. The best and clearest approach for communications probably is your own website with comms section, and post one-sentence summary + link to your website for a variety of social medias for greater visibility. There should be only one long-standing statement/source of truth for each newsworth event. Except of course if your strategy is to manipulate audience with confusion.
- sailfast 2y agoIt's also contrary to a number of federal records act laws, conflict of interest and ethics laws, etc. Folks don't seem to care about that though... Also good thing the primary audience for Social Security recipients is in the X user demographic? I gotta say this could have been an incredible opportunity to revolutionize technology for the people but it was squandered by self-dealing morons.
- exe34 2y agothose laws only apply to competitors to Twitter.
- ljm 2y agoI think Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman is a solid thesis on the sudden rise of communication and its steady decay. In less than 100 years we went from sending news via envoys or on horseback to compressing it and sending it over a wire. The only time you would ever go to the effort to send news, back then, was if it was important or vital, but crucially it was actionable. The decay comes from using the same channels, or even creating new channels, to disseminate info that is not meant to be actioned but simply consumed. The regulations around that production were stripped away and so was the trust that the info you now consume is valid.
- kwertyoowiyop 2y agoI thought this would take at least another month. Maybe next month it’ll be announced that Social Security payments will only be available through the upcoming payment feature of X.
- rasengan0 2y agohttps://www.newsweek.com/full-list-investors-elon-musks-x-revealed-court-filing-1942970 https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-investors-elon-musks-x-re... Just supply your SSN to Saudi Arabia and all will be well.
- chasd00 2y agoso, per the article, they'll post a link to a PR in a tweet instead of informing media directly or via a "dear colleague" letter. Does anyone really care or am i supposed to be outraged? Was anyone in the general public getting these PR pieces or "dear colleague" letters directly from the IRS anyway?
- wasabi991011 2y ago>so, per the article, they'll post a link to a PR in a tweet instead of informing media directly I cannot see where the article says they'll post a link to a PR, in fact it seems to say they will stop doing PRs altogether. Did I misread?
- paulvnickerson 2y agoSounds like a great idea. TV media is more and more becoming a frontend for X posts anyway.
- ChicagoDave 2y ago100% illegal.
- nixpulvis 2y agoIt's worth having a webmaster for public organizations. If it's too hard to manage a simple website that serves the needs that X is filling, we need to address it in the web developer community. You shouldn't need a team of React experts to tell people it's a snow day, or post updates to changing SSA policy. X is a commercial product which can become inaccessible based on login status, no? Do we really expect people to have to log in to view public information.
- guywithahat 2y agoWhat’s interesting is their reasoning is that there used to be an entire team who did nothing but maintain the website and post announcements nobody read. This entire team was fired and replaced by someone who posts on X. There is a decent amount of logic here, and I think it would have happened even if a neutral party owned X/Twitter
- alphabettsy 2y agoThey could easily centralize government updates and such. TBH I’d rather they use a Squarespace site than X.
- guywithahat 2y agoReally what they should do is use some management site to simultaneously post to Facebook/X. What will be really stupid is when Democrats take office, and then they change to some other site, and then Republicans take office, and they return everything to X. The goal should be to maximize access at minimal cost. Social media posts maximize access, and it's not hard to post to multiple sites at once. There are a million different tools for it, and it could be as simple as the social media maintainer posting twice
- mike503 2y agoImagine someone hijacking the account and making “announcements” … that’s why they have official government websites. I’ve always found it amusing how much world leaders actually use Twitter for communications. The fact that a private citizen can purchase the platform and do whatever they want with it is exactly why it’s a bad idea. Not to mention this is a lame way to increase signups and AU metrics, holding a gun to an old person’s head.
- pabs3 2y agoThey really should be doing POSSE instead. https://indieweb.org/POSSE https://indieweb.org/POSSE
- xtiansimon 2y agoThis is an inversion. The official word of US government must be on government servers and platforms/sites or press channels. Use Twitter for promotional utility and reach, but not authority. I am a citizen and I refuse to recognize Twitter as the voice of government.