The NWT government and city of Yellowknife are describing in tweets, Instagram messages etc. how to search key evacuation information on CPAC and CBC. The broadcast carriers have a duty to carry emergency information, but Meta and X are blocking links.

While internet access is reportedly limited in Yellowknife, residents are finding this a barrier to getting current and accurate information. Even links to CBC radio are blocked.

    • StillPaisleyCat@startrek.websiteOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      Agreed. But this is a societal dependence.

      Too many clubs, churches and communities organizations, and small businesses found Facebook easier to maintain than websites, so many people became dependent on that platform.

      The challenge is that governments have a duty to meet their constituents where they are, especially in emergencies. So they send out Tweets, ‘grams and posts directing people to the information on official sites.

      Before the Internet, people would turn on their radios or televisions. That’s why in most jurisdictions (including the United States) broadcasters and cable carriers MUST carry emergency broadcasts, superceding regular programming. The wave of climate-related emergencies raise the question of whether internet aggregator platforms should be required to do the same.

      As an aside, governments and public new sources maintain websites that are accessible. Due to a Canadian Supreme Court decision requiring government platforms to be accessible to persons with disabilities, Canadian new sites have user interfaces that are adaptive.

        • StillPaisleyCat@startrek.websiteOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          We can agree on remote communities having different circumstances, and social networks.

          That said, I doubt that this would apply any less in the Okanagan communities where there are many people living on backroads and off the grid or in most of Canada outside the major metropolitan areas.

            • StillPaisleyCat@startrek.websiteOP
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Kelowna is a significant regional metropolitan area.

              But get into the bush beyond Vernon or up to William’s Lake and you will find that people who used to rely heavily on CBC and other AM radio in a crisis are looking to their regular internet sources. If that’s where they get their information, then that’s where government’s need to make sure it’s available in an emergency.

                • StillPaisleyCat@startrek.websiteOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Cell towers work in some but not all the smaller hamlets.

                  This doesn’t seem to the point however. Meta and X not carrying links isn’t a barrier for those who have no Internet access whatsoever. Whether north of 60 or not, a very significant portion of the population has become reliant on Meta and X to feed them news to the point that they don’t know where to get reliable evacuation guidance in an emergency.

                  As an aside, resilient emergency communications to the public a reason that the CBC will be maintaining AM radio stations that broadcast curve of the Earth. The public needs to know where to find that and have AM radios to access it however.

                  • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    1 year ago

                    Thing is, if there is an emergency, you are not going to force the user to follow a link. You are going to put the details they need to know right there. Something Meta and X are quite happy to allow.

                    There is good reason the payload the emergency alert system those cell towers carry isn’t a link to a CBC article. That would be silly and would be equally silly if done on Facebook/Instagram/X/whatever.

                    The framing of this as a linking issue is hilarious and nonsensical.