Japan has various earthquake notification systems. Tweets are just one more way to get the information to the people on a platform they use.
Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Why governments would ever use a private service for critical use baffles me.
Create your own emergency notification system!
wandermind@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Create your own emergency notification system!
Those never turn out well.
Running their own mastodon instance should be viable though.
otter@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
I remember seeing that they did have a fediverse account? This seems related to that
Brkdncr@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
The Los Angeles/ California earthquake alert system worked just fine today.
Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi 8 months ago
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.
hansl@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 8 months ago
As opposed to waiting until next month for your API call limit to reset?
hansl@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
Mane25@feddit.uk 8 months ago
Is Twitter/X viable for that? The can decide, and have, to randomly put information behind login walls.
hansl@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
It’s a secondary feature of a mysterious enterprise, unknown to americans, called “public media”
skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Just mass send SMSs in a given area
ThePantser@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Cell phones already have the emergency alert system they could just use that.
BetaSalmon@lemmy.world 8 months ago
One thing I wish iOS/Android did was have the option for these emergency alerts to be multilingual, or provide some sort of auto translation. When i was in Japan in November, I received an emergency alert due to NK launching some missiles. It’s pretty scary to have your phone blow up with a loud alarm, and not being able to read the alert because it’s in Japanese. On iOS, you also can’t just copy the notification to translate it. I had to take a picture, and then have Google Translate translate it.
I was anticipating some big earthquake, but turned out to be a child playing with his rockets.
Fishytricks@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m able to take a screenshot and translate this comment in the photos app in iOS.
BetaSalmon@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You’re right, but that was my point, you have to take a screenshot and translate it. It wasn’t something I thought about when my phone was blasting out a loud alarm.
In those kind of emergencies, either it should’ve been auto translated to the users’ default language, or a quick translate option should be available.
forty2@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Remember when just about every government employee was carrying around a BlackBerry device for official business? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I remember when they all loved the Nextel PTT phones.
DoomsdaySprocket@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
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.
quo@feddit.uk 8 months ago
[deleted]DoomsdaySprocket@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
For reference, the article I’m referring to:
cbc.ca/…/twitter-policy-change-hampers-drivebc-1.…
“Social media’s reliability in emergencies questioned after Twitter limit blocks DriveBC posts” (Jul 12).
Whether a provincial traffic account posting emergency info counts as news links for these large companies or not, it’s a pretty ugly look for them to have been blocking emergency information, and it doesn’t look any better now 6 months later.
The whole thing is pretty typical (Canadian) government “not enough, and too late” -style regulation regardless, but these social media sites could think twice about playing the villain so readily in response.
LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
Pacmanlives@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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
Aopen@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
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.
echo64@lemmy.world 8 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.