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Facebook Activates ‘Safety Check' After Deadly Nigeria Bombing

The feature has come under fire from critics in the last week.

A bombing attack in Yola, Nigeria that killed at least 32 people and wounded dozens more on Tuesday prompted Facebook to activate its Safety Check feature – the second time in less than a week the check-in tool has been used after a terrorist attack.

Though no group took immediate responsibility for the killings In Nigeria, Al Jazeera reports that officials will likely point to armed group Boko Haram as the culprit. The group has prior connections to a slew of suicide bombings in the city, the news site reported. 

The use of Safety Check, which allows users to alert friends of their safety, garnered criticism when it was activated for the Friday attacks in Paris but not for the Beirut bombings that left 43 dead and many more wounded.

Critics argued that the decision showed a preference for the lives of people in westernized countries – a claim Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied.

“After the Paris attacks last week, we made the decision to use Safety Check for more tragic events like this going forward,” he wrote in a post on his Facebook wall. “We're now working quickly to develop criteria for the new policy and determine when and how this service can be most useful.”

Prior to the Paris attacks, Safety Check was only triggered after a natural disaster. When the feature first launched, he said its creation was inspired by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan.

 
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We've activated Safety Check again after the bombing in Nigeria this evening.After the Paris attacks last week, we... Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, November 17, 2015

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