Photo via Facebook/Safety Check
Photo via Facebook/Safety Check

On Friday, social media proved to be a fast, effective way for those seeking help, shelter or information during the terrorist attacks in Paris.

Facebook turned on its “Safety Check” feature, allowing people to “check in” and alert their friends that they were OK.

Today, as Reuters reports, Facebook has announced that it will turn on Safety Check more often during disasters “in response to growing criticism that it only enabled the function after the attacks in Paris.”

On Thursday, suicide bombings in Beirut also claimed about 40 lives, which was not as widely reported as the attacks in Paris on Friday, which killed at least 129 people.

As Reuters reports, “many users on the social media platform criticized Facebook for not mobilizing the same safety function during other attacks around the world, especially after suicide bombings in Beirut a day earlier that killed at least 43 people.”

Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook account: “Many people have rightfully asked why we turned on Safety Check for Paris but not for bombings in Beirut and other places.

“Until yesterday, our policy was only to activate Safety Check for natural disasters,” he continues. “We just changed this and now plan to activate Safety Check for more human disasters going forward as well.”

A Facebook spokeswoman told us via email that in the first 24 hours activating Safety Check this weekend, 4.1 million people marked themselves as safe using the tool, notifying about 360 million people worldwide.

Facebook’s Safety Check was inspired as a response to the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, and the company launched the modern version last fall. Learn more about Safety Check here and in the video below:

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