Facebook Safety Check will let you be a mini-hero during disasters

Facebook’s Safety Check system has been one of the company’s more notable additions to the site in 2016.

The system — which triggers when disasters are mentioned on the site, and allows users to mark themselves as “safe” — now allows those who can to do their bit to help others affected by disasters.

We’re not saying that Facebook wants to make a super hero out of you, but it does want to “empower the community to help one another,” according to its VP of social good, Naomi Gliet

The new addition, called Community Help, will let “people find and give help such as food, shelter and transportation after a crisis”.

“With Community Help people can find and give help, and message others directly to connect after a crisis. Posts can be viewed by category and location, making it easier for people to find the help they need,” Gliet adds.

Facebook Safety Check will now also include an feature which will allow citizen heroes to help those in need

Community Help will be made available for those in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Saudi Arabia. The company wishes to trial its systems before rolling it out to the rest of the world.

The company’s Safety Check system has been a novel way for those within disaster zones to use social media as an alert tool, or a tool to simply let loved ones know that you’re safe when other communication systems are offline.

According to Facebook, more than 8.5-million people were marked as safe during the Nepalese earthquake of 2015 alone.

“With every activation, we are continuing to learn how to make Safety Check and features like Community Help better for people in need. We will continue listening to feedback to make the tool more useful and relevant in the future,” Gliet concludes.