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I'm totally clueless, but aren't there rules requiring accessibility of public-facing government communications, to the extent that they shouldn't be allowed to
by dolebirchwood 1mo ago
I'm totally clueless, but aren't there rules requiring accessibility of public-facing government communications, to the extent that they shouldn't be allowed to use a gated platform when making official statements that are a matter of public interest?
- VLM 1mo agoNo, and this policy goes back to publication in for-profit newspapers. Not an issue in the USA in general. With a disclaimer that there's one zillion governmental entities on the planet overall, so its plausible that one requires no fee and no signup required.
- derbOac 1mo agoIt should be that way. My tolerance for people posting to X without also posting to an open platform is over. Public institutions especially. There's zero excuse, none.
- zahlman 1mo ago> There's zero excuse, none. How about the general lack of awareness of "open platforms", or of any given one of your objections to X? Most people are not in the HN bubble.
- edoceo 1mo agoIf it's not the case currently, it should be, that public institutions MUST make their public statements widely available. The old POSSE way seems correct. Blocked, or EULA'd or Paywalled on third-party platforms doesn't do that.
- Petersipoi 1mo ago[flagged]
- rideontime 1mo agoAn open platform could be as simple as hosting their own website. You don’t need to be in a “bubble” to know about websites.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- DOGMATICA 1mo ago“As simple as hosting their own website” is contradictory for a majority of the people using the internet.
- olyjohn 1mo agoWe are talking about organizations here who are communicating with the public.
- ncallaway 1mo agoThe context of the thread is public institutions. I promise you, most public institutions are capable of hosting a web site or running a bluesky account
- alightsoul 1mo agoThey choose not to because no one uses them. To get views for political purposes you have to use social media like blue sky and the fediverse
- MarkusQ 1mo agoWhy should public institutions be trying to get views for political purposes? Isn't that directly contrary to the intended role of public institutions in a democracy?
- alightsoul 1mo agoBecause they want to win the next election? Corruption basically.
- aaron695 1mo ago[dead]
- alightsoul 1mo agoPeople don't seem to know about bluesky, the fediverse and the indie web enough.
- whatthesmack 1mo agoSome people avoid those because they tend to consist entirely of people that support banning non-approved ideas that the real world considers non-controversial. That's why X hasn't disappeared like some of the HN crowd predicted.
- mullingitover 1mo agoI thought HN predicted it would fold due to mismanagement, and arguably it would've if it hadn't been delayed by being rolled into the larger Katamari ball of securities fraud that is SpaceTeslaXAI. And while it hasn't disappeared, it's losing ground to Pinterest.
- account42 1mo ago> And while it hasn't disappeared, it's losing ground to Pinterest. Is it? I haven't seen a Pinterest link in a while so I guess it depends on what bubble you're in.
- mullingitover 1mo agoIf you're not hanging out with a lot of Gen Z women it would explain why it's not on your radar, that's their key demo and they're on a very solid growth trajectory[1]. It's no secret, meanwhile, that twitter has seen steady declines both in daily active users as well as plummeting engagement levels from those that haven't left yet. [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/pins-gains-21-7-3-173600029.html https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/pins-gains...
- jolmg 1mo ago> consist entirely of people that support banning non-approved ideas that the real world considers non-controversial What's an example?
- fearmerchant 1mo agoNewspapers are still often required to be used for certain government publications and they cost money. TwitterX is free. I'm not clear what the controversy here is exactly.
- etdznots 1mo agoIt is not free? You just pay them with your private information and by looking at a few ads. That is not free. Unless you believe information and time have no value?
- alsetmusic 1mo agoNewspapers aren't free either. But Twitter, I mean that crappy one-letter site purchased by a chud, is still garbage. I'm definitely not defending it.
- culi 1mo agoYou need to make an account to access it. That's not free
- AlexandrB 1mo agoWorse, you can be banned for reasons unrelated to your local laws and lose access.
- fearmerchant 1mo agoI have an account and I paid zero for it. Are we talking about the same thing?
- BLKNSLVR 1mo agoYou've paid with a certain amount of personal information. But to be fair, that's the same with a newspaper subscription.
- 1mo ago
- culi 1mo agoSomeone could certainly make a case in a lawsuit for an ADA violation. I bet if people organized, the city would listen before it got to that point There are open meeting laws like the Brown Act but I think that only restricts relying on social media for deliberation. Not communication There is also Lindke v. Freed (2024) which holds that public officials using social media can be sued under the First Amendment violations like blocking users or deleting comments.
- panny 1mo agoWhat open medium would you suggest as an alternative to X? I miss the days when we had an RFC, people got together, came up with a solution, and we ended up with decentralized NNTP or something. Everything is someone's little kingdom now.
- olyjohn 1mo agoIt's called "The Web" and every government org pretty much already has a website. All they have to do is publish something on it.
- ncallaway 1mo agoI think the only thing I’d add is some kind of open and standard syndication system like RSS
- alightsoul 1mo agoYou then have to figure out where the RSS button is for every website.. it's a nightmare for the average person
- pferde 1mo agoBrowsers used to have a little RSS button either next to the address bar, or somewhere in the bottom status bar. But a propaganda corporation has been leading the charge in browser "development" for past few decades, and those do not like it when people exchange information without a centralized middleman, so use of RSS got deliberately pushed as far away from mainstream use as possible. So of course now it's "a nightmare for the average person".
- nomel 1mo agoIt's not gated. You can read any non-adult post with a direct link. I'm seeing this perspective all over in here. As someone without an X account, I can only assume you all have X accounts to not know this!
- thayne 1mo agoYou can't see replies without an account, and it is pretty common for content to be posted as a series of replies to the first post
- wasdly 1mo agoYou can still view direct links, but you can’t scroll someone’s profile or use the search functionality without an account. How many I supposed to scroll a government organization’s tweets if I can only see the first few?
- ncallaway 1mo agoAh, and if that person has split their post into several messages, I can definitely read all of them from a direct link to the first message, right? If I have a link to a local emergency department twitter handle, I can view all of their recent posts, right?
- dlcarrier 1mo agoI presume the post is referencing principal councils in England or Wales. They're powerful enough to make life difficult, but small enough to not get a lot of oversight. From what I've heard, it's like a government-backed HOA, and they're notorious for doing whatever they want, while not letting you do what you want.