Facebook Activates Its Safety Check Feature in Nigeria After Yola Bombings

Since Facebook activated its safety check feature again after the Paris bombings last weekend, it decided to do the same in Nigeria after an attack left over 30 people dead in Yola which is a city in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. Safety Check is used to connect with friends and loved ones after a disaster. It was used after the earth quake that devastated much of Nepal earlier this year. You will bas asked if you’re safe and then all you have to do is click on the “I’m Safe” button so that your Facebook friends can know.

In a post on Facebook earlier today, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the feature would be activated for its Nigerian users as well. “Unfortunately, these kinds of events are all too common, so I won’t post about all of them. A loss of human life anywhere is a tragedy, and we’re committed to doing our part to help people in more of these situations.

In times like this, it’s important to remind ourselves that despite the alarming frequency of these terrible events, violence is actually at an all-time low in history and continues to decline.

Deaths from war are lower than ever, murder rates are generally dropping around the world, and — although it’s hard to believe — even terrorist attacks are declining.” said the Facebook CEO

He went on to encourage people not to allow the activities of a few dash our hope for the future.

Terrorism has mainly been limited to the North Eastern part of Nigeria with records of isolated attacks in other parts of the country particularly the North.