The COVID-19 pandemic put governments under pressure to make radical and urgent decisions, and to implement new digital solutions to steer society and deliver public services. Our study analyzes social media discourse to understand the co-production of a digital public service in an emergency situation. Empirically, we mobilize Twitter netnography and discourse analysis to examine citizens’ perceptions of the contact tracing app (CTA) introduced by the UK government to tackle the pandemic and save lives. Our study contributes to research on public sector accountability for digital transformations by advancing scholarly understanding of how societal concerns and public perceptions impact the co-production of digital services. Our findings reveal a high level of public skepticism toward the app and a general distrust of the UK government among the main social challenges of the CTA's implementation. Furthermore, we evidence widespread public distress over the potential violation of democratic freedoms and misuse of the data collected by the app. Finally, we reflect on the linkages between the lack of governmental accountability and the difficulties in mitigating the expressed societal concerns, causing a corresponding resistance on the part of the public to engage in and support co-production.

中文翻译：

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英国 COVID-19 应用程序：数字公共服务的失败联合制作

COVID-19 大流行使政府面临做出激进和紧急决定的压力，并实施新的数字解决方案来引导社会和提供公共服务。我们的研究分析了社交媒体话语，以了解紧急情况下数字公共服务的共同生产。根据经验，我们动员 Twitter 网络志和话语分析来检查公民对英国政府为应对大流行和拯救生命而推出的接触者追踪应用程序 (CTA) 的看法。我们的研究促进了对社会关注和公众认知如何影响数字服务的共同生产的学术理解，从而有助于研究公共部门对数字化转型的问责制。我们的调查结果揭示了公众对该应用程序的高度怀疑以及在 CTA 实施的主要社会挑战中对英国政府的普遍不信任。此外，我们证明了公众普遍对可能违反民主自由和滥用该应用程序收集的数据感到不安。最后，我们反思了缺乏政府问责制与难以缓解所表达的社会关切之间的联系，从而导致公众对参与和支持联合制作产生相应的抵制。