Facebook’s Safety Check is one of the most defining methods of how social media can help people during periods of turmoil. Activated by Facebook during periods of crisis such as earthquakes, tsunamis, etc, it lets people in the vicinity of said crisis mark themselves as safe. People who can’t mark themselves of safe but are known to be can be marked safe by their friends.
It’s a quick way to let your friends and loved ones know you’re not in any immediate danger but you would still have to post a status giving a bit more detail about your current situation. Now, people in the areas suffering from a crisis can use the feature to reach out to and help others who are affected by offering them shelter, food, transport, etc. The newly added feature is called Community Help.
“Our belief is that the community can teach us new ways to use the platform. We saw people using Facebook to tell friends and family they were OK after crises, so in 2014 we launched Safety Check to make that behavior even easier. Since then, Safety Check has been activated hundreds of times, but we know we can do more to empower the community to help one another. With Community Help people can find and give help, and message others directly to connect after a crisis. Posts can be viewed by category and location, making it easier for people to find the help they need.”
– Naomi Gleit, VP of Social Good.
https://www.facebook.com/facebook/videos/10155499595981729/
Currently, Community Help is made available for natural and accidental incidents, such as an earthquake or building fire. Furthermore, it is only seeing a limited start in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Saudi Arabia for the first couple of weeks. After the trial period, it will expand to cover additional countries and incidents.
