The Japanese X (formerly Twitter) account for the NERV Disaster Prevention App hit its API limit, limiting its ability to reach Japanese users.
Japan has been rocked by a series of earthquakes off the west coast of Japan, causing untold damage across the country as well as tidal wave warnings in the aftermath.
Japan experiences minor earthquakes with relative frequency compared to the rest of the world, and users rely on apps such as NERV (seemingly based on the Neon Genesis Evangelion organization of the same name) to receive alerts. However due to intense nature of the disaster, the X account for the app quickly hit their API limit.
This is terrible – the most useful account on this site for spreading reliable information on the quake in both Japanese and English has reached its API limit on X and can no longer send automated tweets on quakes and tsunamis. Sort it out please @elonmusk https://t.co/AIEz7RxzE5
— Gearoid Reidy リーディー・ガロウド (@GearoidReidy) January 1, 2024
At the time of writing, no deaths have been reported as a result of the earthquake or tidal waves.
NERV’s accounts were later updated as Public Utility accounts by X in order to better provide service to users.
Thanks to everyone's concern, X reached out to us to urgently complete the process of registering both @UN_NERV and @EN_NERV as "Public Utility" accounts, resolving the issue of API rate-limiting.
We are able to confirm that automatic posting of tweets has resumed as of 21:00. https://t.co/BqdtJyrtLO
— NERV (@EN_NERV) January 1, 2024
Users are encouraged to download the app to receive information directly from NERV.