 The rise of Mastodon has made me so much more aware of government services requiring us to use private companies’ systems to communicate with them and access services. Sitting on a Dutch train just now I was shown on a screen “feeling unsafe in the train? Contact us via WhatsApp”. What if I don’t use WhatsApp? (I do, but I wish I didn’t have to) I’m forced to share my data with Meta to use it. Public systems should not require use of private services. 176 comments
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 i'd be super pissed off if a city or other gov service asked me to use META or whatsapp etc. to contact them! I'd bring it down to the table. I would. @Brendanjones Most if not all accounts from corporate social media platforms have been suspended. Mastodon is about the only platform that respects freedom of speech. @Brendanjones These signs are there for (predominantly) young female travelers who have to endure all kinds of threatening behaviour we cannot even imagine. The wording, and use of WhatsApp, was chosen to absolutely minify any barrier for them to reach out for assistance. I see a thread here of angry old men who feel their rights are being violated by this laudible approach to trying to keep women safer. Anger is better focused to other places in society where we can reduce big tech dependence. @Brendanjones I see many people being angry in this thread ("scandal", "horrible" etc). I think it cannot be done better: SMS is available but in this case the lowest absolute barrier for the target audience (and I believe that young girls will be more comfortable with WA) is in my opinion more important than the dependency on big tech @Brendanjones My doctors surgery has stopped doing their online ‘e-consult’ service and instead you’re now required to contact them via WhatsApp. If I have to call them then I tell them I don’t have WhatsApp and don’t want to install it. It’s just wrong. @Brendanjones I was looking to access customer support for a train service in the UK this morning: "Urgent request? Contact us by X (formerly Twitter)" Absolutely goddamn not. @Brendanjones No phone number at all? Or emergency button? They should be the minimum of critical services. What if the "unsafe" situation is life-threatening?  @Brendanjones i still love the confused look on people’s faces when i say “… but i’m not on Facebook…”   What is the alternative though? I mean for this specific "feeling unsafe in the train" case? When you need to reach wide audience and especially people who might be contacting you one and only time you have to use something popular already. |
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@Brendanjones@fosstodon.org I guess it is a chicken and egg problem. 100 agreeing with you, but my family use WhatsApp for everything, having an alternative is quite difficult