Social networking website Facebook recently announced the launch of its crisis response tool ‘Safety Check’ for users. This will allow users to notify their family and friends whether they are safe in times of emergencies.
‘When Facebook had control of Safety Check, it had a high standard of what counted as a disaster. A typhoon in the Philippines might have six inches of water in your house, and in California, that’d be a big deal. But in Philippines, we did research there, and people said this wasn’t a big deal,’ said Peter Cottle, Facebook’s lead engineer to Cnet.
‘In the past two years, Facebook turned on Safety Check 39 times. Compare that to 335 dangerous events flagged by its community-based Safety Check tool since the company began testing it in June. One of the first instances of a community-generated Safety Check was the Orlando nightclub shooting in June,’ the report published by Cnet further added.
In the past, Facebook has been criticized several times for being selective when it comes to launching the Safety Check tool.
