Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of Facebook are coming under fire from users of the social networking site, after introducing temporary profile pictures for those who wish to show their support for France and the victims of the Paris attacks. While Facebook were quick to offer users the chance to cover their profile pictures in the colors of the French flag following Friday’s devastating terrorist attacks in the country’s capital, many have pointed out how the social networking site didn’t follow the same protocol for other similarly atrocious attacks carried out in other parts of the world.
Facebook also activated its Safety Check feature for human disasters in the wake of the Paris attacks, allowing users to mark themselves as safe following the mass shootings and bombings. While many commended Facebook for doing so, allowing 4.1 million users to inform their friends that they weren’t in danger during the attacks, the site has been criticized for not allowing other country’s users to do the same, with a bombing in Beirut having killed 40 people just one day before the Paris attacks but Facebook not having made its Safety Check feature available for users in that region.
In a post on Facebook, founder Mark Zuckerberg addressed these criticisms, writing: “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. We just changed this and now plan to activate Safety Check for more human disasters going forward as well.”
He concluded: “Thank you to everyone who has reached out with questions and concerns about this. 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 these situations as we can.”
While it is a valid criticism that Facebook is giving more attention to the Paris attacks than other global tragedies, it could be argued that no matter when they brought about these changes, they would have still received a negative response due to them not having introduced them for previous attacks. With Facebook being a Western company operating from out of a country that is allied with France, it’s hardly surprising that they decided that the Paris attacks were the appropriate time to release the new Safety Check update, and that they’d publicly pledge their support to the people of France. Hopefully they will now continue to use this update to allow people of other country’s to mark themselves as safe during any future similar attacks.
