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.
Bharath M. Palavalli@katestarbird Agreed! I’ve long argued that using such private social media platforms to analyse disaster response or allocate disaster relief is flawed as it is an inherently skewed dataset. I really hope this rate limit exercise nudges disaster management agencies to re-invest in open and transparent push mechanisms.