Science/Tech
Facebook to Activate Security Checks during Human Crisis, After Receiving Criticism
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO - Facebook, has committed to up the security features at the time of human tragedies in the future. The move came after the company was criticized for not turning on their safety checks for Beirut and other bombings but only for Paris. In his defense, Zuckerberg said that Paris attacks are the first time the company has activated the safety feature for human disaster and not a natural catastrophe. According to this feature, the people in the affected region can tell their friends through the Facebook notification that they are safe. The company's forward thinking was criticized as users on Facebook were able to change their profile pictures to the French flags in support of Paris attacks but not such provision was made to show support for Beirut that was also under attack just a day before Paris in which 40 people had died in bombings, reported Tech Crunch.
As reported by Meme Burn, Zuckerberg wrote in a comment on Facebook, "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." Zuckerberg commented on his Facebook picture and said that the policy has been changed effective Friday and the feature will now be made available for all the human disasters.
Safety Check feature was first introduced in 2011 when Tokyo was hit by a Tsunami followed by a nuclear tragedy. Since then, it has been made available during earthquakes in Nepal, Chile and Afghanistan as well as Typhoon Ruby in Philippines. Facebook clarifies that right now this feature is not available for all the disasters. Alex Schultz, Vice President of growth said, "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 Huffington Post.
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