Facebook tool allows users to check on loved ones in Paris

There is no question that “Safety Check” is a welcome feature as it quickly allows a person to let others know they are okay after a disaster strikes.

Following the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, social networking giant Facebook activated its “Safety Check” for Parisians so that friends and family could know about their whereabouts and be assured of their safety.

In a post, Facebook executive Alex Schultz, VP of user acquisition and retention, addressed the criticism, stating that the tool had only been used for natural disasters up until the Paris attacks.

Its activation on Friday night was the first time it had been activated for a disaster setting that was non-natural.

Today, as Reuters reports, Facebook has announced that it will turn on Safety Check more often during disasters “in response to growing criticism that it only enabled the function after the attacks in Paris”.

One place thousands of people checked for information?

Facebook has also created a way for people to put the colours of the French flag over their profile picture. Some see the filter as Facebook prioritizing Western countries over other nations that see more frequent attacks, particularly those in the Middle East. We talked with our employees on the ground, who felt that there was still a need that we could fill.

Now he has said the button was intended only for natural disasters but in the future it will be used more widely. Last Friday, as news of the ISIL attacks spread, the social media platform activated it for Paris residents for the first time for a conflict situation.

Users took to Twitter to express their frustration with the selective use of the feature.

In statement on Saturday, Facebook called safety check a “relatively new feature”. We want this tool to be available whenever and wherever it can help.

For the record, in 24 hours of its initial launch, 4.1 million users marked themselves as safe while 360 million people received the notification.