Californians Say X Blocked Them From Viewing Amber Alert About Missing 14-Year-Old

Missourians reported experiencing similar issues in July 2023, when the Missouri Highway Patrol send out Amber Alert push notification with link to X post. Local residents also said they were unable to see the alerts unless they logged into the platform. “It’s a big change” from the way warnings have been done in the past, said Missouri State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Brown, who works in the public information and education division.

But the incident ultimately didn’t prompt the Missouri Highway Patrol to drop X as its preferred platform for Amber Alert push notifications. Brown said that when X verified that the law enforcement agency’s account was an official government entity, the login issues disappeared and the public could once again access its posts.

Several official California Highway Patrol X accounts have the same verification badges as the Missouri State Highway Patrol, including that Specialized in disseminating proactive alerts across the state. However, not all California agency accounts are verified, including what does it look like The official channel of the CHP Southern Division, which includes Los Angeles County.

When it’s called Twitter, X is received widespread attention Serves as an essential component of global disaster and emergency communications infrastructure. Government officials and agencies around the world rely on the service to broadcast information about hurricanes, mass shootings and other crises. Until Musk takes over the platform in 2022, anyone can view public tweets in a browser, regardless of whether they have an account on the site or have Twitter’s mobile app installed. (In 2015, the company report More than 500 million people visit Twitter every month without logging in.

In June 2023, reports stated that X Start locking content The login screen started popping up online. At that time, Musk called The move was a “temporary emergency measure” and was taken because X’s “data was plundered in large quantities, resulting in a decline in service quality.” It’s unclear exactly what Musk was referring to, but that same month, he expressed concern Regarding the incident where artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI are suspected of scraping Twitter posts without prior authorization.

Now it looks like the decision to turn X into a more closed platform is in trouble. Based on tests conducted this week, X continues to limit what people without accounts can see. For example, Wired viewed the X accounts of several journalists without logging in and was only able to see a sample of their popular posts, not the full chronological profile. Accounts operated by government entities do not appear to be restricted in this manner; no login is required to view all posts shared by the California Highway Patrol Alert account.

In addition to allowing anyone to view content shared on the platform, another way Twitter previously helped emergency communicators was by giving them free access to its API, which Musk later revoked. That Allowed organizations The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center, for example, can send automated warnings about potentially deadly natural disasters. Researchers and first responders can also use the API to monitor activity on Twitter and “extract key insights, such as identifying risk hotspots or combating misinformation,” Hughes said. “As policy and public use have evolved, the role of the platform has evolved, so its effectiveness today may look completely different.”

Despite these shortcomings, X remains an important platform for messaging during emergencies. In October, many government information officials urgently told PR Week They plan to continue publishing updates on But events in California this week highlight the problems government agencies can run into when third-party services once considered reliable later change their policies in unpredictable ways.