So today I clicked a twitter link because companies like to use it for official announcements, only to be greeted with a login page. Was annoyed then I remembered nitter exists. It just prompted me to install Privacy Redirect which I should have done ages ago.
Github: https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect
Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/privacy-redirect/pmcmeagblkinmogikoikkdjiligflglb/related
Firefox Browser Add-ons: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-redirect/
Looks like twitter waited for the reddit API changes to do push this change to try to do it under the radar.
This is pretty terrible really. Governments, cities, states use twitter for alerts and news. Now I have to agree to be tracked and monetized to view information from my government. I think everyone needs to write to all your cities, states, schools, law enforcement etc and demand they stop using twitter for anything. Our taxes should not go to padding twitter’s wallets.
Now that Twitter has become what it is, I’m somewhat offended that my local government makes announcements on it. Hopefully this will be an impetus for them to stop… although many agencies use Facebook too, and FB and IG have been this way for years.
Lemmy is exactly what government bodies need. Anyone from other instances can see, vote and comment. They can limit sign up to only employees and their users immediately have an official seal of authenticity.
@obama@whitehouse.govwould be so cool.They absolutely should be setting up lemmy or mastodon as official announcement sites. That would be a perfect platform.
I think they also want to be on twitter, fb etc for the distribution potential though.
I would prefer @potus@44.whitehouse.gov so that it makes it easier to defederate from extreme right wing presidents if, god forbid, they get in power again.
Also for archival purposes.
As much as I hate the idea of Yet Another Social Media App, I kind of wish there was some sort of official government-specific platform that was only available to state/local/federal government(s) or organizations for making important announcements. No memberships required (other than posters or commenters), no likes, upvotes, or retweeting or whatever, just postings of information that people can get to from anywhere.
They could easily have their own websites based on Mastodon or Lemmy, not federated with anything.
They could also just use RSS feeds for one way notifications.
The Brazilian government send SMS to people for alerts. It’s independent of apps, and everyone with a phone can get them.
Seems like a good solution for important warnings.
I don’t use twitter, but I’ll check the local utilities twitter if there is a power outage so I can learn about updates, or the local transit twitter if there are delays, things like that. SMS isn’t very practical for those kinds of infrequent uses.
I’ve worked in local level government communication. Most of the time your just trying to hit as many places as possible in a hopeless effort to keep an interested public informed. The price is usually low, the audience is there, and information can be duplicated to other platforms easily, so it generally makes sense to use social media.
That said, low engagement on a platform would be a great reason to consider cutting it out. A citizen with feedback is enough to spark the flame too.
Or just nationalize Twitter, make it a public utility like water, parks, roads, etc. Then it’s not subject to the whims of some clownshow billionaire dictator. It could be the people’s podium, not some damp troll cave.