This seems like a sound move. It will be interesting to watch as other apps who previosly depended on Twitter’s API do the same, for the benefit of their users.
What was Twitter doing that a service like Pushover couldn't do for them? Same for the city/municipality who stopped sending out their transit updates via Twitter.
Fuck Twitter but it was a good thing to have safety warnings available through multiple platforms where people received them immediately. Fuck Twitter because it's so untrustworthy and money-grubbing now that it is driving important services away.
Hot take? Such important services should never have been built on the back of profit driven companies, unless there were strict laws forcing companies to prioritize and not-monetize them.
Like AMBER Alerts, Google and Apple have to design their phones with the ability to deliver them to your phone free of charge. 911 calls don't incur a carrier charge. Things like that.
Unfortunately most people are not on decentralized social media, so they should be legally compelling these companies to carry PSAs and disaster warnings where people will see them. But even though social media is the new public square, there is no attempt by governments to protect people's rights and ensure their needs are met. People see what corporate interests want them to see.
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