(task) Are you safe? Facebook’s Safety Check and the future of emergency management | Brookings Institution

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> https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2016/08/31/are-you-safe-facebooks-safety-check-and-the-future-of-emergency-management/?utm_campaign=Center+for+Technology+Innovation&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=33931651 <https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2016/08/31/are-you-safe-facebooks-safety-check-and-the-future-of-emergency-management/?utm_campaign=Center+for+Technology+Innovation&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=33931651>
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> Are you safe? Facebook’s Safety Check and the future of emergency management
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> On July 28, Facebook issued a Safety Check <https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101699265809491> in response to a shooting in a Chicago neighborhood, asking its users located in the area to verify if they were safe. Rather than wait for one of its employees to issue a Safety Check in the wake of a crisis, Facebook has recently begun using community-generated Safety Checks <https://code.facebook.com/posts/1031317120284314>. These alerts are generated when a spike in user statuses tells the algorithm that there’s a crisis underway, which Facebook can follow-up with an employee-initiated Safety Check. As Facebook strives to make its crisis alert features faster and more precise, it gains use as a real-time crisis management tool rather than simply a crisis news source.
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> Facebook’s new Safety Check feature has arrived amidst increased demand for emergency reporting mechanisms following this summer’s wave of terror attacks <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/08/making-sense-2016-summer-terror-isis-160801072331216.html>, and was recently deployed in Orlando <https://www.brookings.edu/2016/06/13/omar-mateen-lone-wolf-terrorist/> and Dallas <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/09/us/dallas-police-shooting.html?_r=0>. Other technology companies with an international reach are now developing their own alert functions: Google has its Person Finder <http://google.org/personfinder/global/home.html> to locate loved ones after disasters, while Uber added an SOS button <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Ubers-SOS-button-will-alert-local-police-control-room/articleshow/47119457.cms> to its app in India and is testing a safety hotline <http://www.today.com/news/here-s-deal-uber-s-secret-emergency-hotline-t80101> for American cities. As technology companies expand their community-generated safety alerts, users will rely on them as an indispensable <https://gigaom.com/2015/11/16/safety-check-shows-facebooks-indispensability-problem/> part of their own and their loved ones’ safety.
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> Using Facebook’s unique platform, Safety Check offers a clear advantage over inadequate government crisis alert mechanisms. First, “check in” messages instantly relay a tacit “stay away” to nearby citizens, increasing their emergency situational awareness <http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/1/25>. Second, Safety Check offers an alternative to telephone networks, which often jam up <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-04-16/why-cell-phone-networks-fail-in-emergencies> during crises. Third, today’s crises affect victims from many different nations, which makes reporting even more chaotic. With its centralized network of over 1.13 billion daily users <http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/>, Facebook fills the need for a global crisis communication tool.
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> By allowing users to quickly communicate that they are okay to loved ones or friends, Facebook can absorb some of the work of overburdened government crisis-response programs, allowing them to focus on other critical tasks like searching for missing persons. Such help would be welcomed by the government: in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, the State Department urged citizens to check in with family, not to contact the U.S. Embassy <http://time.com/4112585/paris-attacks-facebook-safety-check/>. In the immediate wake of a crisis, the government lacks Facebook’s capacity to update billions of people on a person’s status.
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> However, as Facebook continues to develop <http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/facebook-is-learning-when-to-use-safety-check-for-disasters-and-it-s-not-easy-1323569> its community-generated safety alert algorithm and its implementation, any mistakes present real safety risks. A crisis location reported incorrectly could place citizens in danger. But the longer Facebook waits <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/brussels-attacks-facebook-safety-check-activated-belgium-zaventem-airport-maalbeek-metro-station-a6945636.html> to verify an incident and activate the alert, the less useful the alert becomes. Similarly, speedy but vague crisis alerts may be of little value: Chicago residents reported confusion upon seeing the community-generated Safety Check “The Violent Crime in Chicago, Illinois <http://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/July-2016/Facebook-Safety-Check-Violent-Crime-in-Chicago/>.” In the short-term, the risks <http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/03/28/facebook-apologizes-safety-check-error-after-lahore-bombing/82338260/> of user endangerment or loved ones’ confusion may outweigh the immediate gains, but such beta-testing is likely necessary to perfect a measure that will see use in high stress emergency situations <http://highscalability.com/blog/2015/9/28/how-facebook-tells-your-friends-youre-safe-in-a-disaster-in.html>.
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> Currently, only public posts contribute to Facebook’s ability to activate community-generated Safety Check, but its possibilities are wide-ranging. It could expand its coordination <https://www.facebook.com/help/327443124103038> with local governments or partners beyond what it already does <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/find-missing-child-facebook-amber-alert-feature/story?id=28173570> with its “digital Amber alert <http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/01/introducing-amber-alerts-on-facebook/>.” Many police stations or governments use Facebook to spread <http://mashable.com/2012/04/09/social-media-disaster-response-government/#32XjJ97IW5q9> urgent information, but community-generated Safety Check could help first responders and relief organizations more quickly determine where to focus their rescue efforts. Or Facebook could contribute to the GeoWeb <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10708-011-9423-9>, tracking natural disasters with user input and then mapping the data within Safety Check. Community-generated Safety Check is only the latest crisis response tool on social media, offering a glimpse of what is possible with crowdsourced information.
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> Nicole Don contributed to this post.
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> Facebook is a donor to the Brookings Institution. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions posted in this piece are solely those of the authors and not influenced by any donation.