Facebook Safety Check was for the first time activated for use in the United States since it was invented following the deadliest mass shooting the nation has ever seen.
The massacre took place on early Sunday morning, with one gunman taking down more than 50 people at an Orlando, Florida gay nightclub. The country last experienced a similar act of terror in last year’s San Bernardino killings that saw up to 14 people dead, however, this event is considered as the deadliest ever to happen in the country since the 9/11 attacks.
With the Facebook Safety Check feature activated, it means Facebook users near the scene can easily confirm their status on the most used social networking platform such that their friends and family can know that they are okay. The Safety Check feature has also been used in other similar cases such as last year’s mass killings in Paris, France as well as other occasions where nature has taken its course.
Earlier this year when Pakistan was attacked, Facebook accidentally sent the Safety Check alert to people in other regions, including the U.S. But to deal with this, the company has been running tests of a new feature that will allow users to easily initiate and share Safety Check on the social network. A person closely related to the matter also mentioned that Facebook has been working on improving the launch process of the feature in a bid to make it easier for the team to frequently activate the feature and do is a lot faster than now. At the same time, the company is reportedly testing newer and better ways of empowering people with respect to identifying and elevating local crises.
Facebook Safety Check is a tool that is meant to help friends and families determine whether their loved ones are in safe hands following a disaster. This is helpful in situations where authorities have not mentioned anything regarding the names of the victims of the disaster. Apparently, the Orlando police are yet to identify the entire list of the shooter’s victims.
The shooter, a 29-year-old American-born Afghani named Omar Mateen, was killed by the police during the event.