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Safety Check: Facebook sorry about Lahore goof up
Social media giant Facebook has apologised to users in many countries including India for wrongly sending texts asking if they were \"affected\" by the deadly Taliban bombing in Pakistan on Easter Sunday.
LAHORE/SAN FRANCISCO: Social media giant Facebook has apologised to users in many countries including India for wrongly sending texts asking if they were "affected" by the deadly Taliban bombing in Pakistan on Easter Sunday.
The targeted suicide attack on Christians in a crowded Lahore park killed more than 70 people, nearly half of them children.
Facebook's Safety Check system activates after a tragedy to help people let others know they are safe.
The social network blamed a "bug" for the warnings sent to people thousands of miles away from Pakistan.
Responsibility for the attack on Sunday has been claimed by a Taliban splinter group called Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which said it targeted Christians celebrating Easter.
The Safety Check system is supposed to be a quick way for members of the social network to let friends and family know they are safe if they are caught up in or are close to a natural disaster or attack.
On this occasion, many were made anxious when they received a message because it simply asked "Are you affected by the explosion?" without giving information about how close that person was to any potential threat.
Reports said Facebook users in the USA, India, UK, Hawaii and many other places wrongly received warnings. Many shared images of the messages on social networks.
"Unfortunately, many people not affected by the crisis received a notification asking if they were okay," said Facebook in a statement.
"This kind of bug is counter to our intent," it added.
"We worked quickly to resolve the issue and we apologise to anyone who mistakenly received the notification."
The problem is the latest in a series that the Safety Check feature has suffered. Last year, Facebook began to use the system more widely after being criticised about when it was employed.
Criticism was levelled at it because it was used for the large-scale attacks in Paris but not subsequently for similar bombings in Beirut.
Safety Check was originally developed for use after natural disasters but was expanded to include terror attacks after Paris.
Source: techgig.com
