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

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.

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.

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.

It makes a lot of sense to post where the people are. Roll your own and note the people need your app/etc. granted, everyone is reading X on their smartphone and I’m 100% positive that Japan has the same kind of emergency broadcast system that we have in North America, but again that’s not meant for lots of messages, where a social networking site is.

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

NERV isnt owned by gov and:

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.

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.

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.

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

NERV is a private service, which rebroadcasts government emergency warnings with better representations.

It annoys me that pretty much every local government agency is on Twitter and FB and don’t even really update their own websites. It’s a shame nobody uses RSS much these days.

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.

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

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.

Kind of like the amber alert system?

The thing is, they communicate where people's at. People gotta move

They are using older version of Mastodon, in which it could lead to problems. They should update the software.

Gotta love stirring up old controversies for views because it’s fashionable to hate Twitter right now lol

Edit: I guess people didn't have the healthy dose of skepticism that I felt seeing this. The Dexerto article delivers very little new information; this was a known issue back in August 2023. I suppose Dexerto, a website known for spinning up drama for views, will keep reposting this same information every time Japan has an earthquake. Hating on Twitter is fashionable, so Dexerto's going to use that to gain views to their site.

Evaluate your sources, people.

That crazy dystopian future where the government has to abide by the terms and conditions of private corporations. So wild. 🙄

Come on, this is totally the japanese government's fault. They should be aware of the limits of the services they use. How are we blaming Twitter for the incompetence of the japanese government? I get that we want to hate in Twitter but how incompetent is that team? A disaster prevention team didn't forsee the limits of the communication services they use?

I don't like Twitter but come on, stop shifting the blame.

What Evangelion app?

It definitely makes headlines worse anyway

I just call it twitter because I like dead-naming it.

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.

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

Let me just pull out the old Pidgeon

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.

This is how I feel...

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

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.

That's ugly and scary, use this instead

Aseptic lawns ? glass & metal buildings ? flying cars ? Surefire way of preventing me from reading any future article

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.

Which they already have

https://unnerv.jp/@UN_NERV

Fun fact: Germany has a mastodon instance and is using it.

I can't even install software on my work computer unless IT and security have vetted it, questioned the company if necessary, and approved it. Government and corporate use of social media platforms should be no different. I bet the lack of privacy most of these platforms have wound be against the security policy of any company with a competent IT and/or compliance team. Imagine what social media would be like if all the corporate clients were just like "nope, not happening", hell, we might even have slightly more responsible social media platforms.

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.

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.

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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They do.

Boy do i have news for you)