Japanese disaster prevention X account can’t post anymore after hitting API limit - The issue has arisen after major Tsunami warnings have been issued in areas of Japan following a strong earthquake::undefined
Why governments would ever use a private service for critical use baffles me.
Create your own emergency notification system!
They have one, but you also want information to be where people are. Especially if where people are is full of misinformation and rumours.
Japan has various earthquake notification systems. Tweets are just one more way to get the information to the people on a platform they use.
Create your own emergency notification system!
Those never turn out well.
Running their own mastodon instance should be viable though.
I remember seeing that they did have a fediverse account? This seems related to that
Yup see here:
It’s also in the article linked above:
Luckily, the creators of the NERV App, Gehirn Inc, have created an app-based alternative for users to get information in real-time, as well as running a Mastodon account.
The Los Angeles/ California earthquake alert system worked just fine today.
Does that go through regular EAS? Wondering.
FWIW, Japan does have emergency alerts on iOS and Android, same thing as the Netherlands and the UK.
Is Mastodon even viable for time sensitive information? You need to wait for your instance to propagate the post from their instance which can take time.
As opposed to waiting until next month for your API call limit to reset?
I’d suggest they join a system that has users, proper SLA and an open frontpage.
As much as you might like Mastodon for being open, there are no SLA between instances. Bluesky or Threads likely do.
Not saying they shouldn’t start their own Mastodon, but not for emergency and time sensitive things. Or just for people who can’t access those other services. More options also mean more reach.
They made their own: https://unnerv.jp/@UN_NERV
Is Twitter/X viable for that? They can decide, and have, to randomly put information behind login walls.
They technically still have an SLA, but it’s unclear how much they respect it. And if X isn’t viable there are other platforms that are.
SLA? If that means something like “service level agreement” (I don’t know, you didn’t specify, I’m guessing) then I can still find examples where it falls well below what I would expect from a public service such that if there was an agreement in place that I would definitely be opposed to it as a tax payer.
And if X isn’t viable there are other platforms that are.
I mean yes obviously, there are much more viable platforms like Mastodon, or even a self-hosted website.
And again, which was the point of my original comment, Mastodon may not do great when you need to propagate the post to other platforms. Unless you know something I don’t, Mastodon is horrible for time sensitive information, since it can take hours to get to your instance.
Cell phones already have the emergency alert system they could just use that.
Remember when just about every government employee was carrying around a BlackBerry device for official business?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
That’s different. They had signed contacts and were legally obligated to provide service. Twitter is a free service that can be turned off at any time, with no notice, and is run by a schizophrenic twat with a god complex. It’s just monumentally stupid to put lives on the line through a service like that.
I remember when they all loved the Nextel PTT phones.
This same issue happened during wildfire season in BC, Canada if I recall. A small polite media outrage over it, then forgotten.
Best case scenario would be an independent, international system developed within and for the emergency services community worldwide. Judging by the way firefighters travel internationally to fight forest fires worldwide, the community could be strong enough to support a solution like that, in my opinion.
Canada added new charges to social media sites that made it expensive to host news, so they stopped linking to news to avoid the fees, and then the government whined about them not linking to news.
Hate to say it but I would commonly get alerts from Twitter in the before times about local issues before I would get notified by my local government. Sadly they switched to encrypted radios so I can’t even keep up that way either these days
Because it’s often easier, cheaper, and more efficient in cases that mirror public needs. Alerting, SMS, cloud storage, all are solved and competitively priced. And don’t get me wrong, there ARE use cases for doing certain things custom or internally. There will need to be a mix of things.
The issue, is having an appropriate SLA and having the ability to hold companies accountable when it’s not met. You need stated provisions that won’t happen. Most commercial enterprises already operate under this model successfully, however many of the tools don’t have SLAs around an earth quake. Most companies are willing to provide those provisions but it totally will come with extra cost which is typically not budgeted or sales teams or contracting officers are not equipped to have these conversations.
This is reason #856632 that you don’t put vital government services on fucking Twitter.
Reminds me of Canada’s emergency alert system.
A custody mixup happens a 5 hour drive away with the child last seen an hour ago? Top priority notification to every device capable of receiving SMS. And then a second one in French. And then a third one because they forgot to give any details about who or what to look for. And then a fourth one in French. And then a fifth one because they settled the mix-up. And then a sixth one in French.
Again, they are IMPOSSIBLE to turn off through general device settings because they’re sent at the presidential level (aka. “nuclear launch detected”-level threat).
But an active shooter is going on a killing spree dressed as an officer? Better hope you’ve liked and subscribed to the right police association on Twitter! Because only one of them sent out anything, and nobody sent out an emergency notification at any level.
There are government text messages and local websites and all sorts of ways of reaching people. Unfortunately, X probably reaches ten times as many people. I think a diversified approach makes sense.
That being said, us gov has sent the text messages and that seems to be the best way to do it. Everyone has a phone. And if you don’t, then you like to live on the edge.
All cell phones connected to a Japanese network received a notification regardless of their carrier, brand or what apps they installed.
This is already way better than whatever reach X provides.
Yeah, and kinda renders this thread and article pointless. X serves a redundant feature. Who cares if they treated a government like any other paying customer (like shit)? Bashing X is trendy and this article is just another one. I say this never having had Twitter, nor X, and I just don’t care. I also don’t own any MuskBrands™ stock or anything.
Or any other service, that like Twitter, is a closed for profit service of a multinational for profit corporations.
Letting people senselessly get injured or die seems to be a common theme in Elon’s ventures, so I’m not all that surprised about this.
NERV already has a Mastodon server.
They already announced last year that they want to move away from Twitter.
Gotta love stirring up old controversies for views because it’s fashionable to hate Twitter right now lol
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The Evangelion app name is pure gold.
Fuck X and Musk.
What Evangelion app?
NERV is the name of the major organization in Evangelion. Gehirn Inc, the creator of this app, is the name of the predecessor to NERV in NGE. The font and red design are also the same.
Edit: Seems like the creator is a huge NGE fan and just went with it.
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Twitter was useless but X is just a vanity project at this point
It definitely makes headlines worse anyway
Just say twitter. Calling it “x” will literally always be silly and cumbersome.
⅐ the letters? How cumbersome!
1/7 of the staff to run a company, how stupid.
Mastodon is a thing and they will own their instance.
Doesn’t help if people don’t use it.
That said, they should definitely stop using the thing formerly known as Twitter.
Use news outlets, public radio and TV and SMS alerts, those are “correct” ways of handling such situations, social media is not.Shouldn’t they use every means in their disposal? I know for myself I don’t watch OTA or cable news, and I don’t listen to public radio. Sure, SMS alerts are great, but the more widespread the messaging, the better.
Well the obvious answer would probably be yes, but I’m not so sure. We shouldn’t make either institutions or people expect they can use and find this sort of information on social media, as social media is inherently unreliable for many reasons.
Mastodon can be used as a feed and integrated on websites easily. People can follow the latest news and reports about the disaster. They don’t need to use mastodon or follow them. People need to know this is the right place to go to for a live ticker about a dessaster with an easy URL like disaster.gov.jp.
On top of this, they are independent with their own instance and don’t rely on social media companies servers.
TV and radio are definitely not the right place anymore. Too many people live without them. SMS can be a thing. We
Mastodon can be used as a feed and integrated on websites easily.
OK that makes a lot of sense. ;)
I see no reason not to include social media in the mix.
Which they already have
Great!
does mastodon have something like high priority/importance notifiication? i can imagine how such sms may come, but in order to get that notification via twitter or mastodon, what should you do? run the apps in background and check all notifs, like someone faved your food foto, and then you are like, okay, this wasn’t it.
i just don’t know how this works and really curious.
To be honest, social media including Mastodon is pretty awful for right-on-the-second emergency notifications but good for any extended information that wouldn’t fit in those. Japan does have things in place for before then, similarly to America, but depending on the system you could link to that link just fine.
I remember reading that Twitter was pretty famous on Japan so that’s why they are still there.
Countries should have their own Mastodon instances. Then again, you can’t trust governments.
You can trust them within a framework of expectations. Bureaucrats gonna bureaucrat, and it’s not a monolith. The level of mistrust should rise steeply with the level of money that can be made by being in a given governmental position. Do I trust rando post office employee? Sure, they’re just some schmuck with a job. Do I trust a congresscritter? Oh hell no.
@L4s Just FYI the NERV app mentioned on the article is not government official. (Althought I believe it uses government oficial APIs for earthquake detection)
That’s a bot account BTW. There’s a flag next to the name to indicate that but I guess it’s not visible on mastodon.
Yeah, it just added automatically when hitting Reply here on masto. TIL that if you delete the @ mention, it still becomes a thread :)
If you’re already replying to someone, the @ seems totally redundant.
It’s just the default way on masto, I guess for microblogging historical reasons.
Well, they are no fascists so they can not expect preferential treatment from Elon.
well the Japanese Liberal Party has exclusively ruled Japan since WWII, and it might as well be considered a one party authoritarian state with a facade of democratic legitimacy. But yes, not strictly speaking fascist.
Don’t forget the center left social libs snuck a PM in there for like an entire 2 years, just in time to preside over a giant natural disaster and get ousted again
Have multiple accounts and rotate through them with each post. But then you have to make sure all of your followers are following all accounts. It’s a shitty workaround but it’s a shitty platform to begin with.
One likely reason they’re still on X is so those that didn’t get the memo to use their app or otherwise can’t still can still get alerts. Switching to multiple accounts would require people who likely wouldn’t notice to follow the others, and those that would do that would hopefully have downloaded the app. And yes, if a person isn’t noticing they need to get the app they likely won’t notice a critical alert, but when you’re dealing with people’s lives everything counts.
Right, because it’s not on the platform to remain how it was. It’s now the users’ responsibility to completely change how they interact with the service so they can have the same functionality.
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GTFO Shitter.
Governments should not depend on social media for vital communications, period.
