Twitter is hot garbage, that’s only gotten worse since Elon took over, but this is really just a problem with government agencies/departments using social media websites as primary avenues of delivering information.
this is really just a problem with government agencies/departments using social media websites as primary avenues of delivering information.
I guarantee that this was not a “primary avenue” for delivering this information.
Edit: I was wrong. Finally got the confirmation that should have been included in the article from the beginning:
The alert popped up on the phone with the link, which people could not see.
But instead of conveying vital information that could help locate the victim within the notification itself, the law enforcement agency linked to a post from its official X account
Ah. I see. The alerts were conveyed directly to phones via primary avenues: Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and Emergency Alert System (EAS). Those alerts included a link to their Xhitter account.
Every Amber alert I’ve seen has included location, name of the adult, license plate, vehicle description, a description of the child, etc. Most include come kind of link (secondary avenue) that (in my experience) just shows the content from the alert, and doesn’t actually provide any further detail.
Have we confirmed that this alert included only the link to Xhitter, without the other data? If that is actually the case, it’s not just the CHP’s failure, but also the managers of the WEA and EAS systems: They aren’t supposed to activate those systems without the actual message.
Dear fucking god this is the real issue and why Mastodon is the solution because the agencies can have their own self-hosted presence. Is it perfect by any stretch? Oh fuck no, but it’s a lot closer to those groups having an independence and not relying on the corporations good graces for any of it to keep functioning.
When government relies on corporations to function, those corporations can hold a proverbial gun to the governments head and say “now do what we say or we make everything stop working.”
I wonder why such an important piece of info is posted on social media but not on a dedicated webpage that can be linked to any social media posts.
I mean, it’s not like people would check that dedicated webpage on their own, and they are less likely to click on that webpage to get the additional details. Just put it on the platform most people are using and don’t add extra steps to see what’s needed.
If they’re looking to Xitter it could be copy/pasted instead, but then updates get harder to manage.
if you read the article, you’d find out that the alert linked to the X post. it could be linking to a dedicated webpage instead, which wouldn’t require logging in.
It should be linked to another page. Social media should never the be the primary source for anything like this.
That was my take. Still is, but was before, too, although I have concerns about it. I don’t even use xitter. It’s an unfortunate conundrum and I don’t know the answer. We are clearly seeing the results of channeling government communications through private platforms where information can be gatekept. But what’s the alternative? I agree that the government website should be the primary source and private platforms the secondary source, but, much in the way US-market cars hide the “real” tail lights in/under the trunk in order to put “aux” tail lights on moving trunk/tailgate panels, that’s just not how the general public will use it.
People want to be entertained. Getting info through private media is the most we can hope for. People don’t want to get real news media, let alone their local government’s attempt at a blog site. I know we get amber alerts direct from the cell network to some unique software on phones, but I imagine rolling out some more-frequent alert system will cause a ton of privacy/freedom backlash crying about being one goosestep away from China.
But what’s the alternative?
the government hosting their own social media like how some college campus’ have their own mastadon server specifically for their universities news. It’s not like other organizations haven’t already done it before. Spin your own server, and in your alerts, link your own mastodon server, which should not require user login to read. The platform doesnt matter as long as the information and where to send additional information for help is functional for them. spinning their own servers gives them full control of the outcome.
Social media has a very good ratio of information spreading versus effort required. It’s also why it’s a popular thing for misinformation and influence campaigns.
In contrast, if a government agency wants to make a website for this, it probably needs a proposal, budget request, approval by a commission, a bidding process, and other bureaucatic procedures put in place by politicians that wanted to lower spending.
How hard is it to hire some 23 year old who just graduated in IT and ask them to do it? Static webpages aren’t hard, drag learned how to make them in high school.
Yes this happened to me and my wife.
Alert came in one the phone (screaming at us really) then when you clicked on the notification. Bam blocked because we didn’t have a twitter account.
Can you share a screenshot of the alert? If it’s an android phone, you can find historical alerts under “Settings”.
It’s crazy to me that’s all the info I cluded in the Amber alert itself.
Every alert I’ve ever gotten here in Arizona had the relevant info on the alert, regardless of how large that might make it.
Why the fuck would California shorten the info in the first place?
Unfortunately I haven’t received any since I got a new phone, so my history is empty.
This is what happens when governments rely on a private corporate service for public announcements
Every government should just adopt a fediverse instance of some sort, maintain it and push that to everyone to use as a public announcement service. That way it would not be controlled, manipulated, lost or disconnected if they had full control over it all the time.
This is a solved problem
Shit catches fire in Australia and we get text messages.
Our phones in America get amber alerts and extreme weather notifications too, so idk what this article is on about
ignoring for a second you can turn off push notifications so that’s a stupid contact method in the first place they also just linked to a 3rd party site instead of sending info directly over the system.
Someone elaenin the thread posted a screenshot. The Amber alert in CA basically just said it was an alert and a bit.ly link to Twitter for info.
Why the fuck doesn’t California actually include the info on the alert itself like I’ve always gotten anywhere else? That’s the actual question. Every alert I have received in AZ has had all relevant info for the alert in the alert itself, never just a link elsewhere.
The government uses EAS and WEA to disseminate alerts. Both are government-operated systems that are not controlled, manipulated, lost, or disconnected by third parties. The AMBER alert in question was delivered via both EAS and WEA.
The Xhitter avenue (along with every other major social media platform) is what they refer to as a “secondary distributor”.
According to the article, that was not done in this case, hence the article.
Yes, that is the claim I’m looking to verify. Is that claim accurate?
You can view past alerts you have received. On android phones, Settings > Notifications > Wireless Emergency Alerts > Emergency alert history. (or just search for “Amber”). One screenshot can easily prove or disprove the article’s claim.
Again, if this is actually what happened, it indicates a problem not just with CHP, but also with EAS and WEA for not ensuring the requested alert message included the emergency content.
Don’t worry they spam everyone’s cell phones with deafening alerts at 3am too.
