Zuckerberg: Facebook will use safety check for 'more human disasters

Facebook executives have responded to critics who have questioned why the company hasn't activated its "safety check" feature in more situations.

In a Facebook post Saturday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social network would use the feature in "more human disasters going forward as well." The company's Vice President of Growth, Alex Schultz, also explained the decision to activate the tool in Paris Friday in a separate post.

SEE ALSO: Facebook activates Paris safety check following terror attacks

Facebook activated its safety check website for people in Paris Friday following the terror attacks in the city. More than 4 million people used the tool to let their friends and family know they were safe, according to the company, and 360 million users received notifications that their friends were safe.

Responding to comments on his profile picture, which he had changed to show support for France, Zuckerberg said the company would use the safety check feature for "for more human disasters going forward as well."

Screen Shot 2015-11-15 at 10.16.08 AM

Friday's attacks marked the first time Facebook had deployed the tool for a situation other than a natural disaster. Safety check was introduced last year and has been used after earthquakes in Nepal and Afghanistan, during Hurricane Patricia and other natural disasters.

Though many applauded the tool on Friday, Facebook later came under fire from critics who questioned why the social network didn't use the tool after Friday's bombing in Beirut or "other parts of the world, where violence is more common and terrible things happen with distressing frequency," according to the company's Vice President of Growth, Alex Schultz.

In a lengthy post on Facebook's Safety account, Schultz explained the decision to expand the tool to other emergencies.

We chose to activate Safety Check in Paris because we observed a lot of activity on Facebook as the events were unfolding. In the middle of a complex, uncertain situation affecting many people, Facebook became a place where people were sharing information and looking to understand the condition of their loved ones. We talked with our employees on the ground, who felt that there was still a need that we could fill. So we made the decision to try something we've never done before: activating Safety Check for something other than a natural disaster. There has to be a first time for trying something new, even in complex and sensitive times, and for us that was Paris.

This activation will change our policy around Safety Check and when we activate it for other serious and tragic incidents in the future. We want this tool to be available whenever and wherever it can help. We will learn a lot from feedback on this launch, and we'll also continue to explore how we can help people show support for the things they care about through their Facebook profiles, which we did in the case for Paris, too.

The executive didn't elaborate on what the criteria would be for activating the feature in future incidents other than natural disasters, noting that the feature "is not that useful" during wars or other ongoing incidents.

"In the case of natural disasters, we apply a set of criteria that includes the scope, scale and impact," he wrote. "During an ongoing crisis, like war or epidemic, Safety Check in its current form is not that useful for people: because there isn't a clear start or end point and, unfortunately, it's impossible to know when someone is truly 'safe.' "

You can read his full post on the subject here.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Mashable tech news