A few of that criticism was levied at Facebook for activating its “Safety Check” feature for the horrific events in Paris but not for Beirut. The Tuesday blast struck as the market was closing, and along with the dead, more than 80 people have been taken to the hospital.
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In a post on his Facebook page, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the feature would now we be used more frequently.
FB stock is up 2.51% Wednesday. Following the Paris attacks, Facebook is expanding its use to human disasters as well. “Until yesterday, our policy was only to activate Safety Check for natural disasters. We’re now working quickly to develop criteria for the new policy and determine when and how this service can be most useful”, he added in his post.
Though it might seem like an unlikely reason for a controversy due to its apparent humanitarian concern, the reason is that Facebook, intentionally or unintentionally, did not activate these feature when gruesome incidents had happened in parts of the world other than the West, especially after the suicide bombing in Beirut a day earlier or when a hospital of MSF (Doctors Without Borders) in Afghanistan was attacked by U.S. forces only days ago.
But Facebook’s move was not enough for other social media users.
– Dumi Mdluli (@DumiMdluli) November 18, 2015 Now we sit & wait for Facebook’s safety app for #Yola or perhaps the option to put #Nigeria’s flag as profile pic? Since then, the feature has been used after earthquakes in Afghanistan, Chile, Nepal and typhoons in the South Pacific and the Philippines. People in Paris were posting to let their friends and family know they were safe, Alex Schultz, Facebook vice president of growth, wrote in a post Saturday. “There has to be a first time for trying something new, even in complex and sensitive times, and for us that was Paris”. “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”.
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Features like Safety Check and the French flag filter offered by Facebook are seen as emotional validation or gestures of solidarity by its users, but Facebook also operates across the world, and has many users who may be impacted by events far removed from Silicon Valley or Europe.
