A week after Facebook activated its Safety Check feature in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, the social network is facing new criticism for not activating the feature in Mali after gunmen took more than hundred people hostage in an attack on a Radisson Blu hotel.
Until last week, Facebook had only used the feature during natural disasters like Hurricane Patricia and after earthquakes in Nepal and Chile. But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Saturday the company would use tool in "more human disasters" going forward.
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At the time, he was responding to critics who questioned why the tool had not been used after bombings in Beirut, Lebanon and other areas. "We care about all people equally, and we will work hard to help people suffering in as many of these situations as we can," he wrote.
This left many Facebook users confused about the company's decision to not activate the feature in Mali Friday, after gunmen took more than 150 hotel guests and employees hostage in an attack that left 27 people dead. Others questioned why Facebook did not release a special profile photo filter like it did after the Paris attacks. (The feature was also used after the U.S Supreme Court's marriage equality ruling in June and during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Facebook HQ in September.
No #Facebook safety check or coloured profil by #mali flag true & very sad #BamakoAttack #team223 #africa #Bamako pic.twitter.com/y7uHpf61ep— Iwacu (@Inyaruguru) November 20, 2015
Dear @Facebook: those of us with friends in #Mali would love it if you could activate the Safety Check feature.— Vanessa Wyeth (@vwyeth) November 20, 2015
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Was waiting for Mali flag filter and a safety check on the same whole day.Didnt see it.This is the double standards I...Posted by Victor Kariuki on Friday, November 20, 2015
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));What, no #Mali flag or safety check, Facebook Safety, Facebook?Posted by Nicole Healing on Friday, November 20, 2015
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));@facebook @MarkZuckerbergF Mark Zuckerberg where is the safety check for Bamako? (ou est le "safety check" pour Bamako?) #Mali #Radisson #Bamako #PrayforMali #MaliansLivesMatterPosted by Abba Sky Toure on Friday, November 20, 2015
Why didn't Facebook activate the safety check for Mali???— Sidibe (@SidibeSings) November 20, 2015
Safety Check was introduced in 2014 and Zuckerberg has said it was inspired by the earthquake that hit Japan in 2011. The feature allows people in affected areas to mark themselves as "safe" and sends alerts to their friends when they do so. Its use had previously been limited to natural disasters until last week when the company activated it in Paris. More than 4 million Facebook users marked themselves a safe after the Paris attacks, and more than 360 million users received notifications about their friends as a result of the feature, according to Facebook.
The company also activated the feature in Nigeria Wednesday, after 32 people were killed in a bombing in the city of Yola.
When reached for comment, a Facebook spokesperson directed Mashable to an earlier statement from Facebook head of growth Alex Schultz.
Schultz previously explained some of the reasoning behind the decision to activate the feature in Paris and the plan to use it in future non-natural disaster emergencies. "We chose to activate Safety Check in Paris because we observed a lot of activity on Facebook as the events were unfolding," he wrote in a post on Facebook's Safety page Saturday.
"This activation will change our policy around Safety Check and when we activate it for other serious and tragic incidents in the future. We want this tool to be available whenever and wherever it can help."
Schultz, however, offered few specifics on what criteria the company would take into account for future incidents. "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.' "
Updated at 2:40 p.m. PT