this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2024
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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

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[–] [email protected] 359 points 10 months ago (14 children)

Why governments would ever use a private service for critical use baffles me.

Create your own emergency notification system!

[–] [email protected] 267 points 10 months ago

They have one, but you also want information to be where people are. Especially if where people are is full of misinformation and rumours.

[–] [email protected] 112 points 10 months ago

Japan has various earthquake notification systems. Tweets are just one more way to get the information to the people on a platform they use.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago (11 children)

Create your own emergency notification system!

Those never turn out well.

Running their own mastodon instance should be viable though.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I remember seeing that they did have a fediverse account? This seems related to that

Yup see here:

https://lemmy.ca/post/3167523

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The Los Angeles/ California earthquake alert system worked just fine today.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Cell phones already have the emergency alert system they could just use that.

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[–] [email protected] 244 points 10 months ago (10 children)

This is reason #856632 that you don't put vital government services on fucking Twitter.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 10 months ago (14 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Or any other service, that like Twitter, is a closed for profit service of a multinational for profit corporations.

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[–] [email protected] 145 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's almost like trying to run the world on social media was a shit tier idea.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (3 children)

It was a good way to offload responsibility for something actually working.

With social media the unreliability card has been played (by us, asocial nerds, killjoys and neckbeards) and beaten (by them, normal sane social successful people) 10+ years ago, so even when it's a serious role being discussed, that card can't be played again.

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[–] [email protected] 132 points 10 months ago (5 children)

How about avoiding commercial platforms when it comes to vitally important official communication?

[–] dmalteseknight 25 points 10 months ago (3 children)

They do, all phones get an emergency alert and tvs display a message. Twitter was another vector to spread the word out.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Problem is that no noncommercial platform would ever have the same coverage as a commercial one like X. People simply would not see the necessity to install it until it's too late.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

This is just a failure in government/governance.

There is literally an opportunity for every nation in the world to run it's own social media service as a hub for government services, alerts etc. If a couple of them did it open source it could be a world standard for government. Even now the wealthiest nations are scrambling to do something like this but it's too little, too late.

And even when they figure out software/process there's no government infrastructure that can compete with the private sector. Amazon in particular are a scary one to me - the amount of sensitive data governments around the world casually chuck into S3 is going to end very badly for a lot of people.

We need governments to get serious about digital infrastructure and security, in the same way they ensure food security, sanitation. Digital capability is just not negotiable anymore, it's vital.

[–] First 14 points 10 months ago

Android & IOS have an emergency alert system that the government can use if they want to.

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[–] [email protected] 99 points 10 months ago (3 children)

NERV already has a Mastodon server.

https://unnerv.jp/@UN_NERV

They already announced last year that they want to move away from Twitter.

https://unseen-japan.com/nerv-app-x-twitter-leaving/

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Love it when corporations have more power than government entities.

The dystopian future is coming faster than ever

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 10 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 10 months ago (5 children)

I feel like this is warranted:

Fuck Elon.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Twitter was useless but X is just a vanity project at this point

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Just say twitter. Calling it "x" will literally always be silly and cumbersome.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Why is a critical service like disaster precention using an unreliable service like Twitter?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It's probably one of numerous ways they try and reach people. Wouldn't be surprised if they have it set up to spam alerts out through various mechanisms including social media. It's just that one platform is now complete dogshit. Maybe this failure will hasten Twitter's decline in Japan.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

Why not? Wouldn’t you want information going out on every available service? They likely have info going out on Facebook as well.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago (1 children)

@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)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But the town square!!!!!111

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Time to switch to mastodon.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 10 months ago (10 children)

Did you even bother to read the article?

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

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago

NERV announcements got blocked? I guess he's not getting in the robot after all

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (11 children)

Society if people read the article:
1000000110

[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I read the title. Had some thoughts and opinions. After reading the article, the thoughts and opinions remain the same.

The article lists prices for next level api requests but it's 5000 dollars compared to the 100 that the non profit is already paying. They encouraged users to download their app to receive potentially life saving alerts.

I summed up the article in three sentences.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Mastodon is a thing and they will own their instance.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If only there was some sort of legal agreement that should and could be reached when the govt wants to use some private platform to communicate something important to people. If only.

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