Photo: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via AFP
Twitter's new interim viewing limits will not stop important messages from getting to the public, emergency services say.
The social media site's owner Elon Musk has announced those with paid accounts can now only see up to 10,000 tweets a day while free users were limited to 1000 or fewer.
The review into the Auckland Anniversary Floods found the first message to the public by its Emergency Management (AEM) team was via Twitter.
In a statement, AEM's head of capability and public awareness Adam Maggs said it was aware of the temporary tweet limit.
"Auckland Emergency Management is keeping up to date on the provider's advice on the matter," he said.
"We share information on Twitter but it is not our only platform for communicating with Aucklanders - in fact, it is really important to remind people that there are many ways to be alerted or informed in an emergency.
"We post information on our social media channels, on our websites, share with media and, if it is a significant event, we can use the emergency mobile alerting platform to directly communicate with people in affected areas."
MetService often tweeted and worked closely with National Emergency Management (NEMA), councils, and other agencies to deliver updates during emergencies.
Head of weather communication Lisa Murray said they also used the platform to see what was happening on the ground from MetService's 220,000 followers.
Lisa Murray. Photo: supplied
"We have followers who let us know when it's snowed at their property, particularly in the South Island, we have followers that will send in pictures of hail," she said.
"We show them how to do the measurements officially so that we can take them and use them. When we get tornadoes, for instance, they send us the impacts from that, videos, evidence so we can verify these things."
MetService was now rethinking how it used the platform, she said.
Auckland advertising business The Goat Farm's owner Vaughn Davis said Twitter carried more weight than its user numbers should dictate.
"There's only a little under 800,000 people using Twitter in New Zealand - and that's probably optimistic - compared to about three million [users] on Facebook," he said.
"Twitter is over-represented in politics, it's over-represented in media, it's over-represented in tech so it does get a bit more attention than it probably deserves."
The ease of social media could also lure users in, Davis said.
"It costs nothing to put up a tweet, it costs nothing to post something on Facebook. But that doesn't mean you're reaching people.
"Just throwing a message out there does not mean it will be seen, and with the limit, that is going to be an even more acute issue."
Media Freedoms Committee chariperson and head of news at RNZ Richard Sutherland said it was important agencies and institutions did not become over-reliant on platforms that were out of their control.
Richard Sutherland. Photo: RNZ
"We've seen this on other platforms as well. For example, Facebook. Sometimes it will change its algorithm and as a result, what people see in their feed will be very different to what they might have seen the week before," he said.
"That has had an impact on, for example, news companies that relied on a lot of traffic that was generated by Facebook."
NEMA director John Price said while the agency issued information via Twitter and Facebook, its research showed they were not the public's primary source of information in an emergency.
"Media and the Civil Defence website are cited by most members of the public as their 'go-tos'. Radio is the most cited source of emergency information, and is resilient to disruptions such as power outages," he said.
"Emergency Mobile Alerts are issued in severe emergencies where life, health or property is at risk, and these are a very reliable way to reach over 90 percent of the population. Local Civil Defence groups and other emergency management agencies will use their own channels to issue information and support to their communities during emergencies."
NEMA's primary online information channel during an emergency was the Civil Defence website, Price said.
"NEMA encourages people to familiarise themselves with the full range of channels available to get emergency information in their area, as no single channel is immune to disruption. We also encourage people to ensure they have a battery powered radio, as information will always be issued via radio in an emergency."
Police, ambulance and fire and emergency all told RNZ Twitter was just one platform they used and any changes were unlikely to have a significant impact on their services.
In a statement, Waka Kotahi said: "The changes don't limit the number of tweets we can send out, and we will continue to use Twitter as a channel to communicate with our customers ... in addition to Twitter, we use Facebook, media releases and our journey planner website to provide traffic and travel information to the general public".
"We currently only use Facebook to publish more significant incidents and events that are likely to impact travel on our state highways.
"With the changes Twitter has made we are likely to start also using Facebook for minor incidents and updates. As with all of our social media channels we constantly review any changes to how they operate and adjust our approach accordingly."
