this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Do media aggregators have a duty to provide links to public news sources in emergencies? (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 2 years ago by StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website to c/canada@lemmy.ca
57 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

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[–] girlfreddy@mastodon.social -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@StillPaisleyCat

Not really. I've lived in Kelowna and also in remote Ontario regions. The only similarity is that there's lots of trees.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] girlfreddy@mastodon.social -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@StillPaisleyCat

There are cell towers in those regions vs few/none in northern regions.

That's the difference.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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.