While Mark Zuckerberg is still in Japan on Thursday, he introduced the world to Facebook’s newest tool, Safety Check. On his own Facebook page, Zuckerberg noted that in times of disaster, many people will turn to the internet to find information on their loved ones, or to let people keep updated on their conditions. Facebook’s tool, Safety Check , was born out of the natural disasters of the past when Facebook naturally became an integral part of that process
While in Tokyo, Zuckerberg noted how important his location was to make this announcement. A press release notes that the earthquake and tsunami in the past few years directly inspired Facebook’s Japan team to develop the Disaster Message Board. Now, the Disaster Message board has become a more developed product in Safety Check.
When a disaster is registered in the tool, Facebook will look at the location of each user, determined by the city listed on a user’s profile, where they’re using the internet and the last location noted in the Nearby Friends app. The app will send a notification asking the user’s status. If you are in the area, you can i ndicate your safety status as well as the status of any one of your friends. Indicating your status will then generate an update to the news feed. Of course, if Facebook gets your location wrong, you can just mark you’re not affected.
Only friends are able to see your updates in Safety Check. For now, Facebook hasn’t partnered with any groups, so if someone hasn’t checked in, no groups will be directly notified. Facebook’s global policy programs manager, Marcy Scott Lynn, noted the gaps in the program, but told reCode the tool wasn’t meant to be for first responders .
In terms of other developments, Zuckerberg responded to a question on his Facebook page of whether the tool would be activated for reasons outside of natural disasters. He noted that natural disasters are the starting point for the tool, but over time, Safety Check will cover other sorts of issues.
So there are plenty of areas where Facebook’s tool could improve, but for now, having the tool at all is a step in the right direction, both for Facebook as a company and anyone affected by a disaster.
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