People in Missouri reported experiencing a similar problem to the Missouri Highway Patrol in July 2023 sent out Another Amber Alert push notification with a link to the X post. Local residents similarly reported that they were unable to see the alerts unless they logged in to the platform. “It was quite a change from how alerts used to work,” says Missouri Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Brown, who works in the public information and education department.
But this incident ultimately did not prompt the Missouri Highway Patrol to drop X as its platform for Amber Alert push notifications. According to Brown, when X verified the law enforcement agency's account as an official government entity, the log-in issue was resolved and the public could once again “access our posts.”
Several official X accounts of the California Highway Patrol have the same verification badge as the Missouri Highway Patrol, including One Exclusively dedicated to broadcasting statewide active alerts. However, not all of the California agency's accounts appear to be verified how does it look The official channel for the CHP's Southern Division, which covers Los Angeles County.
When it was known as Twitter, X was widely viewed As an essential part of the global disaster and emergency communications infrastructure. Government officials and agencies around the world rely on the service as a way to disseminate information about hurricanes, mass shootings and other crises. Before Musk takes the stage in 2022, anyone could see public tweets in their browser, regardless of whether they had an account on the site or installed Twitter's mobile app. (In 2015, the company informed More than 500 million people per month visit Twitter's site without logging in.)
In June 2023, reports that X had Started locking content A log-in screen started popping up behind the scenes online. At that time, Musk called The move was a “temporary emergency measure” that was implemented because X was “looting so much data that it was impairing service.” It's not clear exactly what Musk was referring to, but that same month he expressed concern About AI companies like OpenAI allegedly scraping Twitter posts without prior permission.
Now it seems that the decision to convert X to a more closed platform is stuck. According to tests conducted this week, X continues to limit what people without accounts can see. For example, WIRED viewed the X accounts of several of its staff journalists without logging in, and was only able to see a sampling of their popular posts rather than a comprehensive chronological feed. It appears that accounts run by government entities are not restricted in this way; All posts shared by the California Highway Patrol's Alert account can be viewed without logging in.
In addition to allowing anyone to view content shared on the platform, one way Twitter previously helped emergency communicators was by giving them free access to its API, which Musk later rescinded . He Permitted Organization Like the US National Tsunami Warning Center to send automated alerts about potentially deadly natural disasters. Researchers and first responders can use the API to monitor activity on Twitter and extract key insights, such as identifying risk hotspots or combating misinformation, Hughes says. “The role of the platform has changed as policies and public use have evolved, so its effectiveness may look quite different today.”
Despite these shortcomings, X still remains an important platform for disseminating information during emergency situations. In October, several government information officers declared emergency told PRWeek He plans to continue posting updates on X despite its reduced usefulness because he has a large following on the site and his priority is ultimately to ensure that accurate information reaches as many people as possible. But the incident in California this week highlights how government agencies can run into problems when third-party services once considered reliable later change their policies in unexpected ways.