Government Agencies On The Web

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

This is NOT a political thread. Keep that stuff elsewhere.

There are moves on to prohibit a certain 'social media thing' from Government owned devices in some places. My question is why any Government agencies use any of them at all. I would ban all of them, not just a select one.

Why do IRS, Social Security, Treasury etc, have Fakebook, et al? My local county offices use the Zucker place almost exclusively. When I worked there, I managed the county website on a .gov domain (countyname.co.st.gov). But even then, the bosses insisted on a .com URL.


The TLD .gov is managed by the feds, but all states have access ... ie mi'gov, wi.gov, fl.gov and so on. State IT offices can hand the down to counties and cities and I see a few of them using it in the ci.st.gov format for example.

But why isn't this the norm? Why do federal, state and local governments entrust their data and credibility to other domains? If I'm looking at any website that does not end in .gov, I get nervous about sending information.

Zuckerbook, the MuskTwits, et al have ZERO credibility in my view and anything at all from there or that references those domains is automatically suspect in my view.

 

[lxskllr]

I agree. It should be done in-house using open standards, and libre software.

 

[pmv]

Makes sense to me. I don't want some middle-man with commercial interests mediating my interactions with the state. Especially in cases when those interactions are legally obligated.

 

[IronWing]

For outreach, government agencies are going where the people are. If the goal is to reach lots of people, twitter (used to) and facebook work for that. For services, yes, I agree that the governments should stick to their own sites. I still file paper state tax returns because AZ insists that electronic filing go through data miners.

When libre software actually works, I could see using it. As OpenOffice still sucks, I can see sticking to proprietary software that works.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I can understand NWS sending severe weather alerts by as many channels as possible. I can also see DOD and DOJ sending civil messages and certain other critical public safety information. But NO official office should be using any of those methods for any form of routine information or transactions.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

TheTwits, Zuckers and others are all subsets of the web. Virtually every single web user has access to .gov whether they have a twit, fake or inst account or not.

 

[lxskllr]

As OpenOffice still sucks, I can see sticking to proprietary software that works.

Dunno if you're just using that as shorthand, but openoffice has been dead for years. It ceased to be relevant when libreoffice launched. You might want to try libreoffice. It may still not work for you, but it's a better product that actively developed.

 

[Captante]

The actual secure government websites should only use .gov domains.

However Government-related social media accounts DO have a place. They can be extremely effective at facilitating communication and bringing issues agencies would prefer get "swept under the rug" into public view.

 

[pmv]

The actual secure government websites should only use .gov domains.

However Government-related social media accounts DO have a place. They can be extremely effective at facilitating communication and bringing issues agencies would prefer get "swept under the rug" into public view.

Not a topic I've given any thought to before this moment, but I suppose the distinction is between accounts used to put general information out there, and accounts that involve people giving their information _to_ government, or involve government sending specific communications to people.
Really doesn't matter if the state uses Facebook to tell people the weather forecast. Very different if it's how you are expected to apply for your passport.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Absolutely they should use .gov or other TLD that is only available to government. Here in Canada it's usually .gc.ca so they own the gc.ca domain and then setup sub domains. Though I think it would be nice if .gov was universal for all countries, so each federal government just registers a domain and uses that. ca.gov, us.gov, mex.gov etc. Or they could even make TLDs like cagov usgov etc. Provinces could perhaps even have their own sub but maybe that's getting a little ridiculous. Ex: on.ca.gov for Ontario.

What this ensures is when you look at a URL you KNOW it's the government, and not some random person that registered the domain. Same with .edu. You know it's actually a real school.

I'm ok with government being on social media but if they link to anything critical like forms or something then it should lead to an official URL.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I would prefer the Feds to establish some form of public interactive communication system IN PLACE of 'social media'. There is no reason each agency couldn't have a forum like this for example. FedSoup is as close as I've seen, but that is not official.

 

[jpiniero]

If you are talking about TikTok, that's because of the China angle.

 

[deadlyapp]

I would prefer the Feds to establish some form of public interactive communication system IN PLACE of 'social media'. There is no reason each agency couldn't have a forum like this for example. FedSoup is as close as I've seen, but that is not official.

Why? Nobody would use it. The point is that they are going where people already are. Nextdoor seems to have become more of a tool for my local agencies because they can hone in on neighborhood.