Facebook’s Activation of Safety Check on Friday sparked Controversy

The terrorist attacks in Paris has caused many deaths and wounded many people. After the shootings and bombings around Paris, Facebook activated its tool called Safety Check, which enabled people in Paris to let their loved ones know they were safe. Many people received a special notification in a new type sent from Facebook after the terrorist attacks in Paris.

However, it has been pointed out that the Safety Check is available only for Paris but not in the other recent big issue such as the twin suicide bombings in a suburb of Beirut that also exerted bad impacts with more than 40 people killed and 200 injured a day earlier. This topic has raised a extensive attention and some controversy.

In a comment on Facebook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote, “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 theses situations as we can.”

To responded the question, Alex Schultz, the vice president of growth in the company said that the toll is not perfect and effective for all disaster situations. Facebook would learn more from the feedback received from this launch and the company would change its policy about when to activate the tool.

A tool is helpful when people need to know the exact condition of their loved ones once a disaster came. The new tool, Safety Check of Facebook may be more helpful when it grows better and better. Besides, except for Facebook, people can also use other social media to let their friends and family know they were safe, such as Twitter. In fact, during the Paris attacks, Parisians also took to twitter to get information and to help those seeking safety from the attacks.