Kate StarbirdIn ~2014, my colleague & I argued that social media (esp. Twitter) had become part of the critical infrastructure of disaster response. People were turning to Twitter during crises to share information about impacts and resources. Disaster responders were using the data shared there for situational awareness, and were communicating in real-time with their constituents. Today’s events underscore just how dangerous it is for society to come to rely on private platforms as critical infrastructure.
Neville@katestarbird Problem is there are no non-private options because of the sheer amount of infrastructure required to handle billions of users. That requires a level of investment and centralised oversight a user-owned platform hasn’t been able to achieve. idk what the answer is.