News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by quadrifoliate on Sunday September 06, 2026 @10:06PM (#49593017)
> It almost seems like we need laws that information about public services have to be available on a public website

Won't happen in the US/UK because the governments are in Elon's pockets. Won't happen in the EU because they are incapable of getting anything done.

So unless you're in a jurisdiction other than the above three I wouldn't hold your breath about any laws being passed about this.

Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by bentcorner on Sunday September 06, 2026 @10:42PM (#49593251)
I think at best you could propose that public information be available without login.
Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by misstuned on Monday September 07, 2026 @03:10AM (#49594951)
I'm in the UK and tired of basic public services like the railway company posting service updates to X first. I keep a bookmark to the local train company (Northern in my case) on XCancel but while it was down, I was a bit under-informed. The stuff is on their own website, but it seems to appear there after it appears on X, the layout is crap, and there's no way to contact the company other than via X.

A lot of private companies do the same thing - no way to effectively contact them privately, but as soon as you whinge publicly on X they're "on it". Octopus Energy is one of the worst for that.

Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by rob74 on Monday September 07, 2026 @06:38AM (#49596609)
More or less the same over here in Germany, except with WhatsApp, which is only slightly better than X, but at least you are likely to already have it installed because of all your contacts that refuse to use a more secure messaging app...
Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by mitxela on Monday September 07, 2026 @09:16PM (#49604631)
At least WhatsApp isn't enshittified yet.
Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by mitxela on Monday September 07, 2026 @09:16PM (#49604634)
What's their account? I think it would be useful to have a fault-isolated Nitter set up just for such important accounts.
Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by basisword on Monday September 07, 2026 @11:46AM (#49599685)
I don't think it's even about being in anyones pocket. They want the publicity. And unless they are all forced to stop using it, everyone has to use it.
Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by mitxela on Monday September 07, 2026 @09:17PM (#49604643)
Partially true. We can make better front ends just for this information. Imagine traindelays.com or whatever. If it's better than Twitter then people will go there, and then we can get a direct feed from the train company, and then they can abandon Twitter.
Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by quadrifoliate on Tuesday September 08, 2026 @08:10AM (#49609241)
> And unless they are all forced to stop using it...

I was talking about the political will to mandate "forcing them to stop using it".

The UK doesn't actually have the economic and political will to put together a national Mastodon or Bluesky instance and mandate that all public agencies use it for their announcements. I'm sure there are three fact-finding committees about it at the moment though.

Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by basisword on Tuesday September 08, 2026 @01:12PM (#49613250)
The problem is that if they did put together those instances the general public wouldn't use them. Most of the public don't want to see a politicians tweets. They share them on Twitter because people will have it put in front of them regardless of desire.
Re:Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue by quadrifoliate on Tuesday September 08, 2026 @01:21PM (#49613382)
No one cares about a politician's tweets.

The issue being discussed is important notices from Government agencies that affect people's lives immediately, that shouldn't be behind a login wall. Think train service cancellations and such.