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.
miki@katestarbird What alternative would you suggest? Government-run services make little sense in a global context, and decentralized services don’t have the centralized search and hashtag management capabilities which are crucial in those situations. Such services are also far less resilient to natural disasters, if most people from country x are on x-speaking instances also hosted in country x, a natural disaster / invasion of that country will put a lot of strain on exactly that part of the network which will be needed most. Private-owned social networks certainly have their challenges, but I don't see other existing solutions as much better.