Alex Vranas @Alex@vran.as

If I had it my way, it would be a criminal offense for any governmental organization to post anything at all on social media if they do not first publish the same media on a .gov website.

The current status quo of gov orgs using Facebook and Twitter as their primary platform is a huge mistake. The government should not be beholden to private interests to communicate with the public, nor should the public be forced to use gated private platforms to access public information.

I'm seriously considering making legal challenges against the government's use of X.

To state my position simply: It is unacceptable for any government entity to use a for-profit, members-only private platform for communications.

I am going to delete my remaining X accounts, and then start requesting copies of everything my local government posts there.

I should not have to enter into a contract with a private company to access government communications.

Any advice / help is welcome.

Here's the original, now-deleted tweet. The account doesn't appear to be operated by WSP. The display name contradicts the actual username!

Absolutely absurd that they pushed this over the emergency alert system like this without even putting a press release on their website.

Key points:

1. Use of link shortener is suspicious.
2. Shouldn't require X account for government comms.
3. Ads on a missing child alert is distasteful.
4. Linked X account is not listed on the WSP website.
5. "Deputy Scaggs" account is "verified", but also not listed on the WSP website.
6. Missing child not listed on WSP website's missing child list.
7. Asking everyone to drive to the scene of the abduction is not helpful.
8. Tweet was deleted, so the emergency alert now links nowhere.

So I wrote an email to the WSP asking for clarification on all of this. I don't like writing phrases like "the twitter link included in the emergency alert" or "the advertisement before you can see the missing child report" in an email to the government, and hope I don't have to do it too often.

Just got an Amber Alert from the Washington State Patrol that includes a bitly link to a Twitter thread. The details of the alert are included in an image with no alt text.

After logging in, I had to see an ad for dog poop before I could see additional info from law enforcement.

This is the official way we do Amber Alerts in Washington State.

They read my toot over the weekend I bet.

The lightning port on my @system76 laptop died 11 months in. 💔

Not mad, things happen, and I've opened a ticket with them already.

Now to see if their customer service matches the stellar reputation that I've read about. I've never had a more seamless Linux software experience before, but I am jaded with a bad history with companies like Dell that offer sub-par hardware support. The lack of a domestic support team is usually a contributing factor, so I'm optimistic here.

Just watched Bing #AI endorse a random third party web security tool, citing microsoft.com as a source, confusing it for Microsoft's own Windows Defender software.

This is fine, I'm sure.

Once I delete my remaining X accounts, as I plan to, I'll be cut off entirely from any government communications over X, and there aren't always alternative sources of this information.

I shouldn't have to generate ad revenue for Elon Musk and agree to his terms to see these communications. My taxes pay for them, give me them somewhere that is publicly visible, and stop hiding anything behind a membership wall.

Once X starts charging everyone subscription fees, this will only be worse.

I've been thinking about how much of my local government uses X for official communications, and how I now have to have an account for a site known for spreading disinformation and hate speech just to be able to see posts by my elected officials.

I wonder if there's a legal path, at least in my state, towards legally challenging government use of X.

We need to talk about Sam Altman's sanpaku eyes.

My wife and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary today. It's been a wild decade, but we're making it.

Did something stupid as root and completely bricked my laptop. Really seeing the engineering from System76 pay off as I recovered my OS is less than a minute using the recovery wizard.

I've never recovered from this big of a fuck up so fast before on Linux. I'm having to reinstall a few things, but I lost absolutely nothing.

Disappointed in tech media for not using the term "dogfooding" to describe Apple's Scary Fast keynote event produced entirely with iPhones and Macs.

Important supplemental material: https://web.archive.org/web/20000303145808/http://twinkies.com/splash.html

I don't actually have these, but you could, for $995.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334281500193