Facebook Launches Community Help Safety Feature; Available in India and 5 Other Countries
Not sure how effective safety check has been for Facebook users, but the feature this tech giant has added will surely benefit the humanity. Facebook has launched a sub-feature to its safety check, called ‘Community Help’ so that people in trouble can be helped by others.
The Chennai floods in December 2015 created havoc in the state of Tamil Nadu as the city came to a standstill. However, on Facebook and Twitter, a lot of residents reached out to those that needed help and saved them from this calamity.
Looking at similar calamities in the past, Facebook has decided to add the much needed ‘Community Help’ feature that lets people find and give help such as food, shelter, and transportation after a crisis.
With Community Help, people can find and give help, and message others directly to connect after a crisis. Posts can be viewed by category and location, making it easier for people to find the help they need.
The blog post on Facebook read, “To start, we will make Community Help available for natural and accidental incidents, such as an earthquake or building fire. We’re also starting in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Saudi Arabia for the first couple of weeks, and as we learn more about how people use the product, we will look to improve it and make it available for all countries and additional types of incidents.”
Sending and receiving help has been made easier
Facebook received knowledge about a calamity from two sources. First is, if global crisis reporting agencies like NC4 and iJET International alert the company that an incident has occurred and give it a title, and Facebook begins monitoring for posts about the incident in the area.
Second, if a lot of people are talking about the incident, they may be prompted to mark themselves safe and invite others to do the same. In the case of such a disaster, at the top of the page, you will see a prompt to go to safety check.
Upon clicking that, you will see an option to mark yourself safe and also new additional options to ‘find help’ and ‘send help’. Facebook will list down all the categories once you select either of the options – from food, shelter, baby supplies to even basic necessities like water.
As soon as you choose the category, you will see the location of the people offering you assistance. You can get in touch with them instantly to get help or deliver help. Facebook has made it so easy to get help from someone in close vicinity.
The company is going to constantly check the response of this feature in the next two weeks. Facebook has given thought to the features and come up with something that will help thousands of people that get stuck in such problems. Even small disasters will be triggered now, making all news more relevant.
India has seen plenty crisis in 2016, and now that this feature is available, you should make sure you use it to the best. Keep an eye out for community help options when you visit the safety check page.
Source: Facebook
