Critics say Facebook鈥檚 Safety Check reveals a double standard
In the wake of a terror attack in Paris on Friday, Facebook activated a feature it had only rarely used before. The Safety Check tool allowed people in and around Paris to post a status notifying family and friends that they were safe 鈥� a somewhat easier method than calling people individually.听
That was the first time Facebook had ever activated Safety Check for a scenario other than a natural disaster.
In 2014, the company activated Safety Check in the wake of Typhoon Ruby (Hagupit), which stuck the Philippines, and earlier this year Safety Check was used after Tropical Cyclone Pam tore through the South Pacific region. The tool wasn鈥檛 officially launched until 2014, but Facebook began working on it following the tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster near Tokyo in 2011.
Alex Schultz, Facebook鈥檚 Vice President of Growth, on Saturday that the company has received lots of positive feedback about the ability to receive a notification that a friend is safe.
鈥淚 personally have received several from people I know and love and have felt first hand the impact of this tool,鈥� Mr. Schultz wrote.
The Safety Check feature is pretty simple: when a user launches the Facebook app, it uses location services such as GPS and Wi-Fi to determine the user鈥檚 location. If the person is in an area that has recently been struck by a natural or human-caused disaster, Facebook offers a big green 鈥溾�� button that, when pressed, automatically sends out an update to their social network. Safety Check also tallies how many friends are in the affected area, and how many have checked-in as safe so far. (There鈥檚 also a smaller button reading 鈥淚鈥檓 not in the area,鈥� for those times when Facebook doesn鈥檛 get the user鈥檚 location quite right.)
The feature wasn鈥檛 used for any human-caused disaster until the Paris attacks last week. Some observers felt that it was unfair that Facebook activated the Safety Check for Paris and not, say, for Beirut, which was hit the day before with a double suicide bombing claimed by ISIS.
鈥淗appy to see using safety check-in, but can't escape the fact that it wasn't used in or other non-Western active crises,鈥� one Twitter user .听
Facebook says it will expand the Safety Check tool鈥檚 use going forward, based on the feedback it鈥檚 received.
鈥淲e chose to activate Safety Check in Paris because we observed a lot of activity on Facebook as the events were unfolding,鈥� Schultz wrote in . 鈥淭his activation will change our policy around Safety Check and when we activate it for other serious and tragic incidents in the future. We want this tool to be available whenever and wherever it can help.鈥�
