Twitter locked behind login page.

3 years ago by rooster_butt to c/technology

So today I clicked a twitter link because companies like to use it for official announcements, only to be greeted with a login page. Was annoyed then I remembered nitter exists. It just prompted me to install Privacy Redirect which I should have done ages ago.

Github: https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect

Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/...

Firefox Browser Add-ons: https://addons.mozilla.org/...

Looks like twitter waited for the reddit API changes to do push this change to try to do it under the radar.

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sven 104 points 3 years ago

This is pretty terrible really. Governments, cities, states use twitter for alerts and news. Now I have to agree to be tracked and monetized to view information from my government. I think everyone needs to write to all your cities, states, schools, law enforcement etc and demand they stop using twitter for anything. Our taxes should not go to padding twitter's wallets.

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zeppo 46 points 3 years ago

Now that Twitter has become what it is, I'm somewhat offended that my local government makes announcements on it. Hopefully this will be an impetus for them to stop... although many agencies use Facebook too, and FB and IG have been this way for years.

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tvbusy 36 points 3 years ago

Lemmy is exactly what government bodies need. Anyone from other instances can see, vote and comment. They can limit sign up to only employees and their users immediately have an official seal of authenticity. @obama@whitehouse.gov would be so cool.

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Godnroc 24 points 3 years ago

I've worked in local level government communication. Most of the time your just trying to hit as many places as possible in a hopeless effort to keep an interested public informed. The price is usually low, the audience is there, and information can be duplicated to other platforms easily, so it generally makes sense to use social media.

That said, low engagement on a platform would be a great reason to consider cutting it out. A citizen with feedback is enough to spark the flame too.

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paddirn 18 points 3 years ago

As much as I hate the idea of Yet Another Social Media App, I kind of wish there was some sort of official government-specific platform that was only available to state/local/federal government(s) or organizations for making important announcements. No memberships required (other than posters or commenters), no likes, upvotes, or retweeting or whatever, just postings of information that people can get to from anywhere. Something completely untied from any corporate entities.

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zeppo 19 points 3 years ago

They could easily have their own websites based on Mastodon or Lemmy, not federated with anything.

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bighi 9 points 3 years ago

The Brazilian government send SMS to people for alerts. It’s independent of apps, and everyone with a phone can get them.

Seems like a good solution for important warnings.

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WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 3 points 3 years ago

They could just set up an RSS feed.

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bamboobanga 11 points 3 years ago

This should be the kick in the butt that public entities need to stop using twitter, since their announcements should be made available to everyone, not just those who have twitter accounts.

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petunia 8 points 3 years ago

Some EU agencies are already on top of this. They host a Mastodon instance under the actual EU top-level domain name to make it actually verifiably official. https://social.network.europa.eu/@EU_Commission

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poison 7 points 3 years ago

Our taxes should not go to padding twitter’s wallets

Or just nationalize Twitter, make it a public utility like water, parks, roads, etc. Then it's not subject to the whims of some clownshow billionaire dictator. It could be the people's podium, not some damp troll cave.

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ATiredPhilosopher 1 point 3 years ago

Don't forget Elon unironically said he wanted Twitter to be a global town square. Dudes playing 1d chess by reducing his advertisers reach even further...

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