Facebook has a built-in feature in the form of Safety Check that prompts users to confirm whether or not they are safe. This is typically used in emergency situations like earthquakes, floods, bombings, and so on where the tool will basically let your friends and family know that you are safe.
However recently it seems that the tool was activated which caused some concern, although thankfully it turned out to be a false alarm. If you have friends in Bangkok, Thailand and have been receiving notifications that they are safe after an alleged bombing, you’ll be relieved to learn that there was no bombing.
The “source” of the @Facebook Safety Check for Bangkok: A fake news site that scrapped stuff from elsewhere…! pic.twitter.com/i6Q2k8XBxP
— Saksith Saiyasombut (@SaksithCNA) December 27, 2016
In fact some have speculated that this could have been Facebook’s fake news problem running rampant again. Some users allege that Facebook was duped into activating the Safety Check tool after coming across fake news articles, some of which were actually spread (probably unknowingly) by legit websites.
However Facebook has insisted that this was not the case, and that they activated the feature only after confirming with trusted third-party reports. “As with all Safety Check activations, Facebook relies on a trusted third party to first confirm the incident and then on the community to use the tool and share with friends and family.”
Instead it seems that the alarm was triggered by a protester who threw ping pong sized bombs, described as firecrackers, from the rooftop of the Government Savings Bank, as per a report from the Bangkok Post.
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