In the wake of terrorist attacks in Turkey, the social networking giant has turned on its security feature.
Facebook Inc. has turned on its “Safety Check” service subsequent to the horrendous bomb attacks in Istanbul, Turkey’s main international airport which shook the region to its core. The unfortunate event took place during Tuesday night and the social networking site has activated the service ever since.
The incident at Istanbul Ataturk airport took the lives of around 50 people and left over 100 injured. The Menlo Park Calif. firm sent out love and sympathies after the incident. “Our hearts go out to everyone touched by these tragic events,” the company expressed in a statement. “We hope the people in the area find the tool a helpful way to let friends and family know they are okay.”
The primitive concept behind Facebook security feature was to let users notify their friends about their safety in an event of natural catastrophe. Similarly, the users can check on their friends and acquaintances as well and marked them “safe.”
The social networking giant activated the feature when Paris had an unfortunate episode of bombing last year. In the similar way, earlier this month, after Orlando was shaken by nightclub shooting, the site’s security feature was brought into action. Among this, the same feature was activated post Brussels terror attacks and Ankara, Turkey bombing happened earlier this year.
Earlier this year, ahead of Easter Sunday bombing in Lahore, Pakistan, –claiming 70 lives –the Californian social networking giant’s Security Check service suffered from glitch. The feature erroneously forwarded misdirected notifications for which Facebook apologized later.
Love and concern poured out on social media. The incident dominated almost all social media platforms on Tuesday. Twitter uses took the web by trending #Istanbul worldwide in addition #terörelanetolsun –a Turkish cursing condemnation of terrorism –and Atatürk Havalimanı'nda (‘at Ataturk airport’ in Turkish). Also, another worldwide trend was #PrayforTurkey.
A lot of unanswered questions regarding the attacks are stuck in a limbo. No organization has taken the responsibility of the attack. People across the world, however, have used the social media platform to express their condolences and to stand with Turkey at time of tragedy. Since the attacks, social media has a flux of information being shared, images and experiences with public and other are also being uploaded.
Earlier when suicide bombs attacked Paris, Facebook launched a temporary profile photo feature which let the users to add a transparent flag filter to their current display picture. As of now, the site hasn’t introduced such feature to record grievances for Turkey attacks. Many users, however, have been showing their creativity by editing their pictures in photo editing app and uploading the edited picture on the platform to express their sorrow and grief. Many analysts have opined that the site will soon launch similar feature for the country as well.