Facebook announced Safe Check Feature will be more often enable for all around World – Davenport Tech Day

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg committed to turning on Safety Check in more human disasters going forward, responding to criticism that the company turned on its safety feature for Paris but not for Beirut and other bombings.
A few hours later, some users reacted differently:

Where was Safety Check after suicide bombings in Beirut killed more than 40 people? Or after an attack at Garissa University College in Kenya left 147 dead?
Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg says critics were right. The social network will now activate Safety Check for a broader range of human disasters.

“You are right that there are many other important conflicts in the world,” he wrote in a post on Facebook. “We care about all people equally, and we will work hard to help people suffering in as many of these situations as we can.”

Facebook decided to activate the tool after talking to employees in Paris during the attacks. With Zuckerberg’s promise, Facebook will now have to keep a handle on major disastrous events around the world, even if they aren’t broadly covered by the media, and even if the base of Facebook users in the country isn’t as large as it is in Paris.

Facebook started Safety Check as a response to the 2011 tsunami in Japan, and has since used it for earthquakes in Nepal, Chile and Afghanistan, as well as Typhoon Ruby and Tropical Cyclone Pam. The company says it has criteria for deciding whether to use it, based on the “scope, scale and impact” of the disaster, according to Alex Schultz, vice president of growth at the company.

Zuckerberg explained that the Paris terror attacks marked the first time the company has enabled Safety Check for a human disaster, not a natural disaster like an earthquake. The feature allows people in a region affected by a crisis to send a notification to their Facebook friends that says they are safe.

As Facebook profile pictures are updated with French flags and Paris users check in, many have questioned why the same support has not been extended to Beirut, where more than 40 people died in bombings the day before the attacks in Paris.

“You are right that there are many other important conflicts in the world,” Zuckerberg wrote in a comment on Facebook. “We care about all people equally, and we will work hard to help people suffering in as many of these situations as we can.”

Zuckerberg wrote in a comment on his picture that Facebook’s policy just changed on Friday to allow the feature to be used in a human disaster, and going forward it will be used in more.

An early form of Safety Check first launched in 2011 during Tokyo’s tsunami and nuclear disaster. It has since been launched during earthquakes in Afghanistan, Nepal and Chile as well as during Tropical Cyclone Pam in the South Pacific and Typhoon Ruby in the Philippines. However, Facebook says the feature in its current form cannot be applied to all crises.

“In the case of natural disasters, we apply a set of criteria that includes the scope, scale and impact,” wrote Alex Schultz, vice president of growth. “During an ongoing crisis, like war or epidemic, Safety Check in its current form is not that useful for people: because there isn’t a clear start or end point and, unfortunately, it’s impossible to know when someone is truly ‘safe.’”
Facebook said it chose to enable the feature in Paris because it noticed a lot of activity on the ground

So far the company has received positive feedback — as it should. It was reassuring on Friday as news reports were coming in to see friends in Paris checking in as “safe.”

“This activation will change our policy around Safety Check and when we activate it for other serious and tragic incidents in the future,” Schultz wrote.

Schultz also wrote that it would explore more ways for people to show support for “things they care about” through their Facebook profiles, responding to criticism that a French flag instant profile picture was available but not a Lebanese flag option.

Especially now that Facebook boasts more than a billion daily active users around the world, the criticism reinforces the company’s need to maintain a global perspective — not just a Western one.

Of course, worried loved ones would prefer that we err on the side of overcommunication, and Facebook’s tool made it easy. Facebook also streamlined the sharing of sympathy for Parisians, letting users add a temporary overlay of the French flag for their profile pictures. People snapped it up, posting pictures along with prayers, poems, and expressions of sorrow. Some of them were personally affected by the attacks. a great many who were outspoken in their sympathy were not — and they are, some say, exemplary of a certain psychological principle. When we mourn someone else’s tragedy on social media, is it empathy — or narcissism?

Facebook was first inspired to create the Safety Check tool in Tokyo during the Tsunami and nuclear disaster in 2011. The Safety Check was also used during the recent earthquakes in Afghanistan, Chile and Nepal as well as Tropical Cyclone Pam in the South Pacific and Typhoon Ruby in the Philippines.

“We chose to activate Safety Check in Paris because we observed a lot of activity on Facebook as the events were unfolding. In the middle of a complex, uncertain situation affecting many people, Facebook became a place where people were sharing information and looking to understand the condition of their loved ones,” the post read. “We talked with our employees on the ground, who felt that there was still a need that we could fill. So we made the decision to try something we’ve never done before: activating Safety Check for something other than a natural disaster. There has to be a first time for trying something new, even in complex and sensitive times, and for us that was Paris.”

“We want this tool to be available whenever and wherever it can help,” Schultz wrote. “We will learn a lot from feedback on this launch, and we’ll also continue to explore how we can help people show support for the things they care about through their Facebook profiles, which we did in the case for Paris, too.”

Schultz said Safety Check will remain a work in progress, and Facebook will continue to work to make it better and more useful.