Facebook's Safety Check Feature Is Very Much Sensitive to User Activities: Bangkok's Recent Bombing Incident A Fake News
On Tuesday, Facebook's Safety Check has proven that it can alarm its users may it be just a hoax or an actual incident because of its "media sources". The Safety Check feature of Facebook enables their users to locate their relatives who are in the area of concern and to know their situation. This has been very helpful as calamities and terrorist attacks can happen at the most unexpected moment, and general information is very much appreciated.
But not all sources can give reliable information as the recent false alarm has caused a stir on Facebook, as the feature was automatically triggered by the informant. CNET recently reported that a certain Bangkok Informer used a video from the 2015 bombing but reality check was, the protester only threw a firecracker during a rally at the Bangkok's Government House. There was no explosion or was reported hurt in the said incident, but it did catch the attention of onlookers when the said "ping pong bombs" was thrown from the top of Government Savings Bank.
According to a report from Digital Trends, Facebook is now using a third- party security company to supposedly filter out false positives. However, the features will still base on user activities or an algorithm which scans trending news and posts for a specific area. This was not even the first false alarm the feature has triggered when the feature was activated in the U.S, U.K, and other countries after a bombing in Pakistan.
Although the feature was then deactivated after an hour, Facebook defended that the Safety Check feature only relies on keywords as it tracks the "word of the mouth". The social media company has no control to the feature as it cannot filter the reliability of its sources when it changes its way of activation last November.
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