@ExSimGuy on Facebook
A surprising number of authorities indeed use Facebook and Twitter. When you look at MH370 they reported first on Facebook and in some cases had their websites running days behind that. One of the pprune locals there confirmed this prio use of Facebook.
If they dont have a process in place like you expect for an official website, then these authorities run the risk of publishing premature and incorrect information. Something which has happened a number of times. The present case is no exception of preliminary reporting.
For people on pprune this is at least a bit annoying. For families in cases like these it is painful (see interviews with families).