Embed Notice
HTML Code
Corresponding Notice
- Embed this noticeI'm not sure this is the right way to proceed.
#Twitter is part of the U.S. disaster and emergency communications infrastructure. As
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/19/twitter-emergencies/ points out, about 1 in 5 U.S. Americans use Twitter. So it's here where people get their info, or from platforms that pass through announcements that originated on Twitter.
Also, as the article points out, :
« [O]fficials expressed confidence in their ability to spread messages and warnings without Twitter, using tried-and-true methods like email distribution lists and wireless alert systems [...]
“We’ve been sharing messages for a long time, long before Twitter came into existence,” said Karina Shagren, the communications director for the Washington Military Department in Tacoma [...] “We’ve always been modifying strategies, and we’ll do it again if we need to.” »
The main problem is not that Musk purportedly undermines Twitter's part in the disaster and emergency communications #infrastructure but that in the U.S. critical infrastructure is run by private companies. (Cf. the winter blackouts in Texas of 2021.)
Thus on the one hand it's a deeper seated structural problem (i.e., capitalism), on the other hand it's not something that is peculiar to Musk's handling of Twitter. In fact, given Twitter's share in the infrastructure, it may serve to Musk as further incentive to keep Twitter running decently.