Govt's Twitter posts to also be available on its official website
Ljubljana, 12 July - After Twitter boss Elon Musk introduced the latest limits on using the platform at the beginning of July, the Slovenian government said it will also make its Twitter posts available on its website. So far, they are not considering cancelling their Twitter account, the Government Communication Office (UKOM) said on Wednesday.
Kempten, Germany
The logo of Twitter.
Photo: dpa/STA
Twitter now requires users to log in to access the site while previously even those without Twitter profiles could view tweets. It also imposed a limit on the number of tweets that can be viewed per day to 1,000.
The Slovenian government and the ministries only use Twitter as a support tool to communicate with the public and the changes reducing the usability of the service do not pose a risk to reducing the availability of information in Slovenia, UKOM told the STA.
"There are many tools the government uses to communicate, from press releases and press conferences to digital channels like the gov.si website and social media," they said. In most cases government information is available on several outlets, not just Twitter, therefore there is no increased inequality between users of this social network and other citizens, UKOM added.
The issue of unequal access to information was raised by the Citizen D Institute, an NGO promoting active citizenship, which said this is a "shocking example of discrimination against most Slovenian citizens" and called for the government and public authorities to stop using Twitter as soon as possible, at least until it is made widely available again.
UKOM also said it had been calling attention to hate speech on the social media platform in the last couple of days, commenting on several tweets and asking users to refrain from posting derogatory or offensive content, and to respect the government's social media commenting rules.