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Facebook explains Paris treatment

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 16 Nov 2015
Friday night in Paris was the first time Facebook's Safety Check was used in a terror attack.
Friday night in Paris was the first time Facebook's Safety Check was used in a terror attack.

Facebook activated its Safety Check feature on Friday night, during the terror attacks in Paris that left over 120 dead.

However, the social network has come under fire for doing this during the Paris attacks and not doing so the previous day for Beirut, where nearly 50 people were killed in similar attacks.

The feature allows people who are in affected areas to 'mark' themselves as safe; their Facebook friends will then get a notification to say so.

Alex Schultz, Facebook VP of growth, responded to criticism in a blog post: "People are also asking why we turned on Safety Check in Paris and not other parts of the world, where violence is more common and terrible things happen with distressing frequency."

He explained the feature was announced last year and Facebook said it was developed after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

"During that crisis we saw how people used technology and social media to stay connected with those they cared about," said a Facebook spokesperson at the time. "Our engineers in Japan took the first step toward creating a product to improve the experience of reconnecting after a disaster. They built the Disaster Message Board to make it easier to communicate with others."

The Disaster Message Board has since been incorporated into Safety Check. Safety Check was activated in Nepal earlier this year following the earthquake and last month in Mexico during Hurricane Patricia.

"In the case of natural disasters, we apply a set of criteria that includes the scope, scale and impact. 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'," says Schultz.

"We chose to activate Safety Check in Paris because we observed a lot of activity on Facebook as the situation was unfolding...We talked with our employees on the ground, who felt 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."

Schultz says the activation will change Facebook's policy around Safety Check and when it will activate it for other serious and tragic incidents in the future.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in his own statement: "You are right that there are many other important conflicts in the world. We care about all people equally, and we will work hard to help people suffering in as many of these situations as we can."

Colourful profiles

This weekend, Facebook filled with blue, white and red - the colours of the French flag. The social network gave users the option to overlay a temporary transparent French flag on their profile picture, to show solidarity.

This same option was not offered to people who wanted to show solidarity with Lebanon.

Hubert Southall, a Vietnam-based designer, has offered to add a Lebanon, Iraq, or Kenya flag filter to anyone who sends him their profile picture on Facebook, reports Digital Trends.

Due to the overwhelming response, he has sent out a call to all graphic designers and art directors "to cover the filter void".

Facebook has not commented on why it only gave the French flag as an option.

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