2y ago

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

www.dexerto.com

Japanese disaster prevention X account can’t post anymore after hitting API limit - Dexerto

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

Lemmy.org - Technology @lemmy.org

Mazdak @lemmy.org

2y ago

Japanese disaster prevention X account can’t post anymore after hitting API limit

www.dexerto.com /tech/japanese-disaster-prevention-x-account-cant-post-anymore-after-hitting-api-limit-2451266/

178 comments

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:
  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.
  
  The Los Angeles/ California earthquake alert system worked just fine today.
  
  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.
  
  It's a secondary feature of a mysterious enterprise, unknown to americans, called "public media"
  
  Just mass send SMSs in a given area
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
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.
  
  The difference being a team of 10 high up administrators took 1 hour to write each of the messages regarding the child.
  Active shooter? Good luck getting ANY credible info until after police have killed them. IC, EOC, Unified Command all have to get together and push out the same message.
  As others have said, there's a reason why you wait for verified information through proper channels.
  
  Again, they are IMPOSSIBLE to turn off through general device settings
  I don't know about your phone, but at least in mine, they can in fact be turned off in general device settings. There's a "Wireless emergency alerts" section in the options, under which you can individually toggle Extreme Alerts, Severe Alerts, Amber Alerts, and Tests
- 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.
- 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.
  
  Not being on Twitter in this case is like shouting "RUN AWAY!" in several empty rooms and not bothering to go into the room full of people.
  Emergency broadcasts should be on all platforms. You need to maximize the chance of reaching people.
It's almost like trying to run the world on social media was a shit tier idea.
- It worked pretty well for what it was created to do, then corporations and governments thought they could profit off of it. I assume they were also concerned that people were starting to talk about things they didn't want people to talk about, like their penchant for buying and selling children.
How about avoiding commercial platforms when it comes to vitally important official communication?
- 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.
  
  Imagine if the only alert of the impending death wave was some federated lemmy server which was having a few network problems that day.
  
  Could always go the route of an amber alert-like system being primary and then pipe the same msg to their secondary commercial platforms (like X). I'm not privy on the details but it sounds irresponsible to rely on X primarily/solely.
- They do, all phones get an emergency alert and tvs display a message. Twitter was another vector to spread the word out.
  
  Well. Then they should tell those people who still use X that this is an unreliable source. For anything else it already is, anyway.
- Kind of like the amber alert system?
- The thing is, they communicate where people's at. People gotta move
  
  People will move if they learn that their lives are at stake by using X.
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/
- 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.
- They are using older version of Mastodon, in which it could lead to problems. They should update the software.
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.
I feel like this is warranted:
Fuck Elon.
- 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.
  
  Twitter worked. Elon bought it. Enshittification ensued. Twitter broke. Hmmm....
  
  Sounds like it's time for governments to get off Xitter.
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.
  
  The tsunami warning app is named NERV as the devs are big fans of Evangelion.
Twitter was useless but X is just a vanity project at this point
Just say twitter. Calling it "x" will literally always be silly and cumbersome.
- I just call it twitter because I like dead-naming it.
  
  Does that...do something?
- 1/7 of the staff to run a company, how stupid.
Why is a critical service like disaster precention using an unreliable service like Twitter?
- 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
Time to switch to mastodon.
- 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
  
  Yes. They need to dump twitter
  
  Switch to != just use it on the side. Drop X, loudly make clear why, and point people to Mastodon.
  
  https://unnerv.jp/@UN_NERV
- They are on mastodon
  
  Have you actually seen Japan social media usage? They're like the second largest Twitter market in the world. Why would they be more attuned to Mastodon vs Twitter?
@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 :)
Society if people read the article:
- 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.
  
  I'm not defending X or anything, I'm just asking people to read the damn article before going in with the obligatory "Why not Mastodon?" If they had read the article, they would've known that the project has a Mastodon account already and we wouldn't have been wasting our time.
- That's ugly and scary, use this instead
  
  That looks like it supports a few dozen people, maybe?
  
  Or how about this?
  
  Slightly better ? still looks like a giant lawn with masturbatory buildings
- Aseptic lawns ? glass & metal buildings ? flying cars ? Surefire way of preventing me from reading any future article
But the town square!!!!!111
- This is how I feel...
NERV announcements got blocked? I guess he's not getting in the robot after all
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.
  
  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
  
  I see no reason not to include social media in the mix.
- Which they already have
  https://unnerv.jp/@UN_NERV
  
  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.
  
  Great!
- Fun fact: Germany has a mastodon instance and is using it.
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.
- 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.
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.
- deleted
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.
I remember reading that Twitter was pretty famous on Japan so that's why they are still there.
@L4s Gee thanks Elon
GTFO Shitter.
I think the replies to this post really captures Lemmy's energy and I love it.
I'm surprised they don't send faxes.
- Boy do i have news for you)
- They do.
Holy shit, didn't know there is an actual Nerv created by an organisation named Gehirn. I mean, good what they are doing, just hope, that Gehirn doesn't get around to do the instrumentality project. Otherwise we will get problems with angels
Great work Elon ! Now Twitter's service has indirectly impacted the life of some people
Governments should not depend on social media for vital communications, period.
Netblocks reports the internet is down in that part of Japan, so...,
It's not like anyone is dying over private social medias, right?
So the Governments are going to start coming after corpoprations right?
did they name themselves after the guys from NGE or is that Organisation from NGE named after them?
Evangelion?

178 comments