Comment by riffic
4 years ago
I've noticed a trend in the last few days (past week, actually) where people have complained about Twitter imposing a login-wall. Threads on this from /r/Twitter on Reddit, for example, have details on users unable to view tweets without having an account:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitter/search?sort=new&restrict_sr...
My premise is that the public sector shouldn't be so closely tied to such awful actors. Twitter's track record is increasingly user-hostile.
One user's point:
> The complaint is “As a taxpayer, how can I access public information from a public agency, without being forced to put private information into some third party database?”
Indeed I plan on contacting both cal-fire and my representative. It’s high time a public, open source alternative to Twitter is developed. We have cspan; we need the Twitter equivalent. Twitters curious choices around who gets deplatformed (the taliban are ok? really?!) should be enough justification.
There's Mastodon, but network effects and name recognition are a big sticking point for Twitter.
I can already hear angry mobs mobilizing to Nationalize Twitter™
there's no need. Public sector agencies could expend their resources on standards-compliant ethical alternatives instead.