Elon closes the X account of a police department

[usonian]

6. NO JOKE --- Californians Say X Blocked Them From Viewing Amber Alert About Missing 14-Year-Old

Archived from WIRED
https://archive.is/2025.01.03-160111/https://www.wired.com/story/amber-alert-paywall-california/#selection-575.0-575.82


"Trust me with your emergency communications."

Earlier this week, the California Highway Patrol sent an Amber Alert push notification to phones in the Los Angeles area about a 14-year-old girl that authorities believed had been abducted. But instead of conveying vital information that could help locate the victim within the notification itself, the law enforcement agency linked to a post from its official X account, a practice it adopted six years ago. But this time, many people reported they could not view the alert because they hit a screen that prevents users from seeing any content on X until they sign into their account.

...

“Requiring a login creates accessibility challenges and raises concerns about digital equity. Everyone should be able to access life-critical information, regardless of whether they use a specific platform,” says Amanda Lee Hughes, a professor of computer science at Brigham Young University who has studied digital emergency communications tools.


People in Missouri reported encountering a similar issue in July 2023, when the Missouri Highway Patrol sent out another Amber Alert push notification with a link to an X post. Local residents similarly spoke out about how they could not see the alert unless they logged onto the platform. “It was quite a change” from how the alerts used to work, says Missouri Highway Patrol lieutenant Eric Brown, who works in the public information and education department.

...

Aside from allowing anyone to view content shared on the platform, another way Twitter previously helped emergency communicators was by giving them free access to its API, which Musk later revoked. That allowed organizations like the US National Tsunami Warning Center to send automatic alerts about potentially deadly natural disasters. Researchers and first responders could also use the API to monitor activity across Twitter and “extract key insights, such as identifying risk hotspots or combating misinformation,” says Hughes. “The platform’s role has shifted as policies and public usage evolve, so its effectiveness today may look quite different.”