Facebook's Safety Check feature was activated in Nigeria today after a suicide bombing took place last night in a crowded market in the North Eastern city of Yola, killing over 30 people and injuring nearly 100.
The feature, launched last year, works by triggering a push notification on devices that are near an affected area. It allows people who are in that area to 'mark' themselves as safe; their Facebook friends will then get a notification to say so.
Previously, it was only used in natural disaster situations, like the earthquake in Nepal earlier this year. On Friday night, during the Paris terror attacks, Facebook made the decision to activate the feature for an event other than a natural disaster.
The social network was criticised of Western bias, as it did not activate the feature the previous day in Beirut after nearly 50 people died in similar attacks.
"Facebook appears to have taken to heart the criticism of its emphasis on terrorist attacks in Paris while ignoring the Beirut bombings the day before," says Arthur Goldstuck, World Wide Worx MD. "It's an eye-opener that social media companies find themselves accountable in the geopolitical arena."
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, said in a post on his profile: "After the Paris attacks last week, we made the decision to use Safety Check for more tragic events like this going forward. We're now working quickly to develop criteria for the new policy and determine when and how this service can be most useful.
"Unfortunately, these kinds of events are all too common, so I won't post about all of them. 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."
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