The tsunami scare today in the Bay Area illustrates how Elon Musk has changed X for the worse in emergencies. This is the real account of Berkeley PD. But changes in verification means it no longer has a verified badge. Anyone searching for immediate info might be uncertain if this post is legit. - ThreadSky

rmac.bsky.social • 81 days ago

The tsunami scare today in the Bay Area illustrates how Elon Musk has changed X for the worse in emergencies.

This is the real account of Berkeley PD. But changes in verification means it no longer has a verified badge. Anyone searching for immediate info might be uncertain if this post is legit.

Comments

sammythecat.bsky.social•78 days ago

Berkeley PD should be on BlueSky! Everyone on X-Twitter should relocate to this great platform 👍🏻

wojno.bsky.social•80 days ago

And now we don't know when the post was made...

pxprogrammer.bsky.social•81 days ago

I honestly don't know why you can't have a gold badge for verification and a blue one for paid services to separate the two types of verification.

Just a dumb idea all around.

thredge.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

tiffanyclay.dev•80 days ago

And don’t forget that posts with external links are downgraded by their new algorithm.

ericcolumbus.bsky.social•81 days ago

Isn’t this what the gray government badges are for? Have they tried to get one?

ericcolumbus.bsky.social•81 days ago

The Oakland police department has a gray badge verifying it as legit. (As do other cities that I checked.) Musk’s changes to verification were stupid but isn’t the Berkeley police department’s own fault that they don’t have one? (If I’m missing something, please let me know!)

rmac.bsky.social•81 days ago

I wouldn't put the onus on the individual account here. Verification right now is incredibly random. I also think this becomes a bigger problem when you get to smaller towns' PDs/emergency services or those outside the US. It's just unclear to users now what is real and what isn't.

dapsychohound.bsky.social•80 days ago

One of the reasons I signed up for Twitter, (Pre-Musk) was because the local police depts were posting there first when things happened around here. Now that's all gone.

davidrlurie.bsky.social•80 days ago

Even "DOGE" has a gray badge, and it is not even an actual government agency.

annmlipton.bsky.social•80 days ago

That makes it worse

jilldlawrence.bsky.social•80 days ago

I hope all these public safety accounts, state, local and national, are coming to @bsky.app where they can use their websites to verify themselves.

foxpointsteve.bsky.social•80 days ago

I’m not convinced this is a good idea. Bsky is a private company and makes their own rules, which can change over time. Given that public safety orgs can send out mobile phone broadcasts en masse, what problem are we trying to solve leveraging social media apps for emergency notifications?

jilldlawrence.bsky.social•80 days ago

Not trying to solve any social problem. These public agencies post all the time on X, which has become increasingly unreliable. I don’t see a downside to posting on Bluesky as well, especially since they can use their own website as their handle.

foxpointsteve.bsky.social•79 days ago

Gotcha. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to leverage social networks, but primary should be govt controlled broadcast systems. That’s my takeaway from past reliance on Twitter.

newsguy.bsky.social•81 days ago

Also, according to Musk, any post that included a link to PTWC, NWS, state agencies, etc. would have been downgraded by the algo.

jillnaustin.bsky.social•81 days ago

x would be the last place i would look at for reliable news

threlkeld.bsky.social•81 days ago

Removing timestamps is maybe not such a great idea if you want X to be where people go for news?

sarahboo.bsky.social•80 days ago

And that’s the one group of accounts I’m not seeing here on bluesky yet: local police, local EMS, local public transport, etc

ignoredmuffin56.bsky.social•80 days ago

And local government too.

mxhrad.bsky.social•80 days ago

also, Bluesky desperately needs a verification system. Impersonation accounts are multiplying.

segajennesiss.bsky.social•79 days ago

so far there is a verification method through websites as they can just use their actual domain, but another form of verification would also be nice

kiminpdx.bsky.social•81 days ago

Didn’t musk remove the time stamp too? X is not the “go to” resource for timely emergency information.

alanoh.bsky.social•81 days ago

why does anyone still use that wretched site — let alone think they’ll get useful information there? 🤷🏻‍♀️

vvalkyri.bsky.social•80 days ago

Epidemiology and long covid seem to be still mostly there.

jonabrams.com•80 days ago

And they’re removing timestamps

heatherlarson.bsky.social•81 days ago

How can we be certain BlueSky info is legit? I'm followed by the same "famous people" daily (impersonators). js.

#dyor

rmac.bsky.social•81 days ago

Bluesky is by no means perfect. But allowing users to verify themselves using their own usernames is one way to prove legitimacy. And I believe Bluesky staff said they are working on their own verification badges.

By and large tho, emergency service accounts have not come over to Bluesky yet.

heatherlarson.bsky.social•80 days ago

It would be interesting to know how many go through the steps to verify with their own domain.

Can't trust much info online anymore 🤷‍♀️

maxxxv.bsky.social•80 days ago

On Bluesky tsunami warnings were everywhere.

durlstonp.bsky.social•80 days ago

There's a tsunami of them, you may say.

smellytoe.bsky.social•81 days ago

Absolutely ridiculous.

dt-23.bsky.social•80 days ago

🤦🏻‍♂️

idamoj.bsky.social•81 days ago

maybe it’s just my fledgling feed concentrated with civic minded accounts but I also didn’t see much info about the tsunami over there vs here being chock full of it. And this is despite not all official emergency response agencies being on here yet

cagirlinsf.bsky.social•80 days ago

Which emergency response agencies are here, do you know?

hax.io•80 days ago

Berkley's own damn fault for continuing to use the fascist platform. No one is surprised by this.

ignoredmuffin56.bsky.social•80 days ago

So what/who do you have to do to get a verified badge these days?

meeche.bsky.social•81 days ago

If they’re still there, after what Musk did for trump, it might just be an IQ thing.

carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social•81 days ago

I had no problem learning about this and getting all the updates in real time on 🦋. Just sayin.

davidh2562.bsky.social•81 days ago

Don't get me wrong here, I loath Musk with every fibre of my being, but Xitter isn't a public service.

lumberjackwharfie.bsky.social•81 days ago

It doesn't have to be, but making it good and useful is still in its interest

davidh2562.bsky.social•81 days ago

Agree 100%.

To be honest, though, anyone still using it as a source for information has an IQ of below room temperature.

lumberjackwharfie.bsky.social•81 days ago

That definitely depends on what you mean by "information" because if you want to know about, for example, college football, that whole media apparatus (and associated discourse) hasn't moved away from Twitter yet.

davidh2562.bsky.social•81 days ago

In this scenario it would/could have been potentially life saving information so while I agree with your broader point, I stand by what I said. I've noticed a few English PL (soccer) have already moved here, I'd imagine college football & other US sports accounts will do so soon. We'll see...

bradwenner.photo•81 days ago

Meanwhile here I knew @berkeleyca.gov was legit because of their .gov TLD

tulipacid.bsky.social•81 days ago

Meh, not just yet, but soon, anyone relying on Xhitter for relevant info deserves what they get.

Sow/reap. FAFO.

bettesays.bsky.social•81 days ago

Related: I'm surprised the official NWS accounts aren't over here yet.

lastthird.bsky.social•80 days ago

I'm sure it'll be fine: he'll just add a paid "emergency notifications" tier. If you want to be safe, just pay up.

debatingroom.bsky.social•80 days ago

Fake accounts could also pose as a legitimate organisation and post false information simply by paying for a blue tick.

All part of the Musk/Trump disinformation war against reality.

fisadev.bsky.social•80 days ago

And to make matters way worse: because it's not blue and it has an external link, the algorithm will bury it way down in most search results, not show it in most timelines, etc.

rmac.bsky.social•81 days ago

The link in the post meant it did not get as much play by the X algorithm. And not having a verified badge meant other content was prioritized over it as well.

Now some users are seeing that X is removing exact time stamps from posts. That will only lead to more confusion in emergencies.

rmac.bsky.social•81 days ago

Public service accounts were so crucial to Twitter and Musk undermined them almost immediately after his takeover.

Twitter employees warned him when he wanted to change verification. One specifically used a tsunami situation as an example. From @kateconger.com and me in our book, Character Limit.

notdnetwork.bsky.social•80 days ago

A better place for public service announcements would be on a network that allows longer posts (and also won't advocate eviscerating government services) : https://notd.io/n/PublicService

lkmc.bsky.social•81 days ago

It’s obsolete. No time stamp.

11thjeff.bsky.social•80 days ago

"Tsunami warnings sounds more like a paid service. Can't give away inside info for free!"

humblecore.bsky.social•81 days ago

@alt-text.bsky.social

auntlaura.bsky.social•81 days ago

Please don’t use Xitter for emergency situations

rowast.com•79 days ago

My life has been chaotic but I really really need to dive back into that book it's a damn fine book

derorfa.bsky.social•81 days ago

Almost as if public square was never the goal. Weird...

jaredwade.bsky.social•81 days ago

Turning the best real time information source in human history into a Reddit/Threads hybrid.

Masterful gambit, sir!

jimcarroll.com•80 days ago

Also, the killing of the time stamp seems, um, important.

vvalkyri.bsky.social•80 days ago

Like what in the hell?

pauldolan.bsky.social•80 days ago

In the 2011 Christchurch, NZ earthquake from twitter, while I was in Australia, I was able to help family near the earthquake with information they couldn't get locally. Twitters only ongoing "value" will be to become a new version of liveleak where videos not allowed on other platforms can be found

supaterryrules.bsky.social•80 days ago

My thought is that it will eventually be sold off into some sort of sportball chat thing. The only business move that kinda made sense was to allow betting.

pattymutts.bsky.social•80 days ago

Get off Twitter altogether people

andydownscoverg.bsky.social•80 days ago

The only reason I’m still on X is the local emergency agencies are there and not yet here.

ditzkoff.bsky.social•81 days ago

b-but Linda Yaccarino says it's where all the conversations are happening!

magentarocks.bsky.social•81 days ago

Not anymore.

aaimnr.bsky.social•81 days ago

What’a up with her? I remember any kind of statement from her got to my visibility literally once. Does she have an embargo, not to steal any attention from the emperor?

stellalaella.bsky.social•81 days ago

But who would even look to old Twitter for information?

sjodle.com•81 days ago

Worse yet, if you’re not signed in (like, maybe, if you don’t have an account), tweets are in random order instead of reverse chronological.

tbear.bsky.social•81 days ago

trying to understand the logic behind this but like many of musk’s decisions it’s a fool’s errand to ascribe reason to anything he does

sjodle.com•81 days ago

Based on those top 3 posts I wonder if it’s sorting by most controversial or least helpful or something.

taserswift.swifties.social•80 days ago

it's most liked. seeing an account's hit tweets upfront might make people more likely to sign up? is my guess about the logic

sjodle.com•80 days ago

Oh maybe

jessicarees.bsky.social•80 days ago

The text was pretty effective. Was walking in Soma and looked at the guy walking next to me & was like what are you going to do? He said move my car from the underground parking. I was like cool I’m going to get a Philz. I hope we shouldn’t be running right now.

solveforbetter.bsky.social•81 days ago

On the plus side, the City of Berkeley has an official account on Bluesky, and was posting timely and relevant updates.

craigbrittain.com•81 days ago

Con: No one can be sure if it's legit

Pro: He deverified the police, all police should be COMPLETELY deverified

mecal3b.bsky.social•80 days ago

If they have basic cognitive abilities to verify, not just trust someone because they have a badge, they’ll be OK.

Now do Bluesky.

wmmiv.bsky.social•81 days ago

Yes but also: the bluesky verification scheme of expecting users will sign up through their employers domain to authenticate them within their username does not seem to be very popular, probably because those handles are not portable once you leave the organization.

lumberjackwharfie.bsky.social•81 days ago

I would simply not assume I have ownership over an account that is intentionally and deliberately part of my job.

The solution to this non-problem is to have a personal account and a work account and have the two mention each other in their bios.