A lot of government agencies use Twitter for breaking news, notifications, and alerts that they’re trying to get out as quickly as possible to as many people as possible, such as tornado warnings, amber alerts, traffic conditions, etc. I can’t imagine they’d stick around a platform that requires logging in to view these messages.
This morning storm Poly smashed the Netherlands, especially North Holland (Amsterdam region). Digital emergency alert system was used, three times, and directed people to Twitter.
Which was closed, of course. It’s a political shitshow right now. Amsterdam municipality already runs its own Mastodon, and this fuckup will probably have consequences in moving official broadcast channels off Twitter.
Nonsense like this is why I believe outdoor warning sirens are still incredibly important. Mobile alerts are not foolproof, and can be bungled horribly, and not everybody has their phone on them, or a phone at all. If there’s a severe storm or tornado coming, you need to know ASAP. Sirens are an excellent way of getting people indoors, regardless of who’s outside. I heard the Netherlands was considering decommissioning its countrywide siren system, which I thought was absolutely fucking stupid. What you posted proves exactly why.
Which was closed, of course. It’s a political shitshow right now. Amsterdam municipality already runs its own Mastodon, and this fuckup will probably have consequences in moving official broadcast channels off Twitter.
Ideally governments should be pushing things like threat to life alerts out via a digital emergency alert system (e.g. Amber alerts) rather than hoping those potentially impacted are checking Twitter.
Which is funny because the UK decided to finally implement this recently and my god the Twitter Boomers were mad.
I reluctantly disabled all government alerts on my phone a few years ago because despite theoretically having multiple levels of importance (minor alerts, major alerts, critical alerts), apparently they weren’t categorizing the alerts when they sent them out so I kept receiving all alerts, even minor ones and alerts for things happening far from where I live, and to make matters worse they overrode do not disturb. Hopefully they’ve improved the system by now, but I haven’t thought to check until this conversation thread.
Let me guess… Amber Alerts in Canada being sent as the “presidential alert” which bypasses everything on your phone and wakes you up at 3AM? Goddamn Alert Ready is a mess.
Kind of terrible that we ever got to this point. I’ve seen announcements from government agencies that are ONLY available on social media. Who thought that was okay?
The joys of neoliberalism and privatization. When you’re convinced the private sector can do no wrong and the government can do no right, is it any surprise that this is the outcome?
A lot of government agencies use Twitter for breaking news, notifications, and alerts that they’re trying to get out as quickly as possible to as many people as possible, such as tornado warnings, amber alerts, traffic conditions, etc. I can’t imagine they’d stick around a platform that requires logging in to view these messages.
This morning storm Poly smashed the Netherlands, especially North Holland (Amsterdam region). Digital emergency alert system was used, three times, and directed people to Twitter.
Which was closed, of course. It’s a political shitshow right now. Amsterdam municipality already runs its own Mastodon, and this fuckup will probably have consequences in moving official broadcast channels off Twitter.
Nonsense like this is why I believe outdoor warning sirens are still incredibly important. Mobile alerts are not foolproof, and can be bungled horribly, and not everybody has their phone on them, or a phone at all. If there’s a severe storm or tornado coming, you need to know ASAP. Sirens are an excellent way of getting people indoors, regardless of who’s outside. I heard the Netherlands was considering decommissioning its countrywide siren system, which I thought was absolutely fucking stupid. What you posted proves exactly why.
Germanys gov runs its own Mastodon instance - social.bund.de - where the cabinet, the ministries, state institutes etc have their official accounts.
Some non-political examples are: The German Weather Service, the German Aerospace Institute, and the Consumer Protection Agency.
Ideally governments should be pushing things like threat to life alerts out via a digital emergency alert system (e.g. Amber alerts) rather than hoping those potentially impacted are checking Twitter.
Which is funny because the UK decided to finally implement this recently and my god the Twitter Boomers were mad.
I reluctantly disabled all government alerts on my phone a few years ago because despite theoretically having multiple levels of importance (minor alerts, major alerts, critical alerts), apparently they weren’t categorizing the alerts when they sent them out so I kept receiving all alerts, even minor ones and alerts for things happening far from where I live, and to make matters worse they overrode do not disturb. Hopefully they’ve improved the system by now, but I haven’t thought to check until this conversation thread.
Let me guess… Amber Alerts in Canada being sent as the “presidential alert” which bypasses everything on your phone and wakes you up at 3AM? Goddamn Alert Ready is a mess.
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Thanks for the context. I see why you would want to turn off the alerts. That’s definitely an irritating misuse of the system.
Kind of terrible that we ever got to this point. I’ve seen announcements from government agencies that are ONLY available on social media. Who thought that was okay?
The joys of neoliberalism and privatization. When you’re convinced the private sector can do no wrong and the government can do no right, is it any surprise that this is the outcome?
Welcome to the dumbest timeline