Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, has been forced into an explanation after Facebook deployed its Safety Check tool during the Paris, France attacks on Friday and yet had not done so during other disasters elsewhere. Facebook users were not too happy and pointed out that there has been many losses of lives elsewhere in the world and Facebook’s Safety Check shows the social network’s disregard of other lives.
Following this criticism, Zuckerberg has made a commitment to deploy the Safety Check tool in more human disasters in the future.
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“Thank you to everyone who has reached out with questions and concerns about this. You are right that there are many other important conflicts in the world” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook.
Zuckerberg went to further explain that the Safety Check had always been deployed for natural disasters and that on Friday, following the news of the attacks, was the first time that it was deployed for a human disaster.
Read more: Paris attacks: the many faces of social media’s response to terror
Safety Check was officially launched in 2014 but had been in the works since 2011 following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan which affected more than 12.5 million people. The social network said that it saw how people were using technology and social media to stay connected during that period and this is what Safety Check was built for.
Using the Safety Check, users can send a notification to their Facebook friends and family, letting them know that they are safe. They can also check on others in the affected area and mark them as safe.
The events that some Facebook users feel should have had the Safety Check deployed or profile pictures updated with the appropriate flags include bombings in Beirut which happened a day before the Paris attacks and killed more than 40 people.
Read more: Facebook now lets you tell people you’re safe during a disaster
Acknowledging Facebook’s mistake in not deploying Safety Check tool in other similar disasters, Zuckerberg stated that “We care about all people equally, and we will work hard to help people suffering in as many of these situations as we can.”
Safety Check is an important tool during a crisis like the one that unfolded in France on Friday night but if it used in certain situations and not other similar ones that occur outside of the West then it will always appear as if it rendering one life more important than another. Hopefully Facebook, as Zuckerberg has said, will now deploy it in other non-Western countries too.
