Facebook uses safety check for Paris attacks

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.

The Facebook “Safety Check” feature allows users to instantly check-in as safe, so that all their friends know they’re alright.

The concerns were addressed by Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg in a message posted over the weekend.

“You are right that there are many other important conflicts in the world”, he added.

Schultz said the feature is a “work in progress”, but that Facebook will explore how it can help people show support for the things they care about. The post was a comment on his change of profile picture to one in which the colors of the French flag are overlaid across his photograph.

Some 360 million people around the world received word through Facebook that those four million people – or about double the population of Paris – were safe, the company said. The feature was activated and came into the limelight following the Paris attacks.

He further writes that like in natural disasters, when the attacks happen, Facebook has become a place where people share information and check the condition of their loved ones.

It was originally meant exclusively for natural disasters, but the company made a decision to use it following the events in Paris. We talked with our employees on the ground, who felt that there was still a need that we could fill.

If you select “I’m safe”, a notification and news feed story will be generated and put in an update. The company activated it for the Paris terrorist attack but not for another attack in Beirut.

By the time Facebook users have marked themselves as safe, they may have been caught up in another attack, for example, Schulz wrote. “A loss of human life anywhere is a tragedy, and we’re committed to doing our part to help people in more of these situations”.

Not all “human disasters” get this option.