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.

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    127·
    5 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.

  • thejml@lemm.eeEnglish
    55·
    5 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
      27·
      5 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.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.networkEnglish
    38·
    5 days ago

    Everyone involved in this decision should be shot.

    What happened to all the republicans crying about “government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers”? Oh right, they’re hypocritical little shits that should be in the ground.

    So tired of everything trash because like a third of the country has less emotional maturity than a toddler.

  • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
    42·
    5 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
      101·
      5 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
        12·
        5 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.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    281·
    5 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

  • cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    252·
    5 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.

  • Singletona082@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    5 days ago

    Yes, it’s amazing to shift all public facing communications to a privately owned platform, and thus tying participation with BEING on that platform.

    To quote @jjjalljs ‘Everyone involved in this decision should be shot.’

  • astrsk@fedia.io
    12·
    5 days ago

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

  • commander@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    5 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