(London Post) Facebook has apologized after a bug sent notifications to users around the world following a deadly suicide bombing in Pakistan. Many took to social media to react to the confusing prompt from Facebook.
Some of the notices went out as text messages to mobile phones and asked: “Are you affected by the explosion?” without giving any indication of where, or how close, the recipients were to the danger. Recipients as far away as Honolulu and Hong Kong reported receiving the erroneous notification.
Once the mistake was realized many users made light of the mistake.
The “safety check” flaws on Sunday represent the latest stumble in Facebook’s evolving practice of prompting users to quickly let their friends know they are okay after being in the vicinity of a deadly incident.
In November, hours after deadly blasts in Nigeria, the company activated the check feature followingcriticism that it was being unfairly selective about deploying it.
A few days before those blasts, the social media site had used it after deadly attacks in Paris but not after suicide bombings in Beirut.
jar/gsw (AFP, Reuters)
