Once again, Facebook had to deal with some issues with its Safety Check feature. So, the famous company decided to issue an apology, after its alert system sent notifications to users who were not in the proximity of the terrorist attacks occurring in Lahore, Pakistan.
The social network’s Safety Check is considered to be a very useful system, as it actually sends notifications that can help people easily share the fact that they are safe following a tragedy occurring near their location. The Safety Check feature is activated only for people located in that area.
Facebook most recently activated this feature for people near Lahore, following the recent suicide bombing occurring here.
However, a bug in the system made it possible for the service to send notifications to people who were not near the area. So, people from many parts of Europe, as well as India, Asia and the US, received such notifications, which scared them thinking that something happened near them. After learning about the problem, Facebook decided to issue an explanation for what happened.
“We hope the people in the area of the bombing find Safety Check a useful and helpful way to let their friends and family know they are okay,” a statement from Facebook indicated.
“Unfortunately, many people not affected by the crisis received a notification asking if they were okay. This kind of bug is counter to our intent. We worked quickly to resolve the issue and we apologize to anyone who mistakenly received the notification,” it went on to add.
The tragic attacks took place on Easter Sunday and no less than 70 people were killed. Hundreds of other people were wounded in the attack. The attack actually came only in a matter of a few days after another tragic situation. The terror attacks that took place in Brussels also killed and wounded several people.
Of course, Facebook activated the Safety Check feature during this time for Brussels, as well.
The Safety Check was first launched by the social network back in 2014. Ever since it was first released, Facebook claimed that the service aimed to be a simple “way to say you’re safe and check on all your friends and family.”
However, despite the appreciation that the service has received, it also met some criticism.
So, this is not the first time when the service is criticised. In fact, Facebook was in the middle of a controversy at the time of the attacks that took place in Paris. Then, the company was criticised for not activating the Safety feature to allow Facebook users to mark themselves as safe or find out if their dear ones were fine.
Facebook also issued a response then and agreed with all claims.
“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,” Mark Zukerberg said.
Despite the fact that some users criticised Facebook for scaring them because of the bug, the popular company received some support messages after issuing the official apology.
