The Social Security Administration Is Gutting Regional Staff and Shifting All Public Communications to X
www.wired.com
The SSA’s shift to Elon Musk’s X comes as the agency plans to cut its regional office workforce by roughly 90 percent, WIRED has learned.

The Social Security Administration is cutting staff from its communications office, and will rely on social media posts instead of press releases to update the media and the public.

Social Security Commissioner Linda Kerr-Davis told employees in a call Thursday that regional offices will no longer issue press releases or letters. Instead, the agency will be using X to communicate to the press and the public.

  • thejml@lemm.eeEnglish
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    8 days ago

    Because X is definitely the right place for that, and something older generations will have access to and know how to use…

    Can we stop this timeline now?

    • TommySoda@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      7 days ago

      Yeah… This is literally designed to hurt people and help Twitter. Some of my older family members don’t even have a smart phone. And if they do the only social media they use is Facebook.

        • Dragonstaff@leminal.spaceEnglish
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          7 days ago

          After 20 years of nobody having heard of my favorite, entirely too long to recommend, book series, I am an absolute shill for the show. (Without the “smart enough to get paid for it” part.) 😆

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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    7 days ago

    Is there not some kind of law regarding general access to government notices? I shouldn’t have to sign up for a private website to keep up with public services.

    • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      7 days ago

      Musk’s long term corporate welfare strategy is forcing all government functions to be subcontracted out through his companies. His companies wouldn’t have long term stability without subsidies, this is literally all he knows.

  • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
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    7 days ago

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… a social media post is NOT an official government communication. I don’t mind it being used in addition to public channels to help spread the word further, but if you are going to use one platform then you should be required to use all of them to ensure all affected people receiving the same information… and I don’t see them posting on Bluesky or Mastodon or even Reddit.

    • Pechente@feddit.orgEnglish
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      7 days ago

      I don’t think they should be required to use all of the networks, just the open ones, i.e. no account registration required, easily accessible

      • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
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        7 days ago

        That’s a good point… if you can’t read messages and discussions without a login, then it’s not really facilitating public notification.

  • astrsk@fedia.io
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    7 days ago

    Well, it was fun paying into it for 20 years. Glad I never calculated the payout as part of my retirement strategy.

  • cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
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    7 days ago

    This is so retarded I couldn’t stop myself from laughing, I even had a little tear in my eye. This is what people voted for! Satire has become meaningless, every day is an absurd joke now.

  • commander@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    7 days ago

    And X will continue declining in popularity along with Tesla. More competitiors need to spring up against starlink so anyone on that including the government can dump that piece of shit

    • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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      7 days ago

      I was listening to Terry Gross interview some broadband experts about broadband legislation the other day and they mentioned that the White House added a Starlink connection to “boost the WiFi signal.” The White House. Probably the single most well connected building on the planet, added a shitty Starlink connection. It was not lost on Terry or the panelists that the whole charade was nothing more than the President of the United States abusing his position to effectively advertise one of his cronies’ products.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
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    7 days ago

    that’s smart because your core audience who would most be interested in your communications totally use social media /s

    also you can’t even fucking view posts unless you’re logged on

  • Cocopanda@futurology.todayEnglish
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    7 days ago

    I’m not worried about this shit. Because I’m not retiring or getting to that age anytime soon. But Godspeed to this nation. Making it out of this mess in a few years.