Mark Zuckerberg Explains Why Facebook Activated Safety Check For Paris Attacks But Not Beirut

Facebook has recently sparked major outrage for activating the Safety Check feature for Paris attacks on Friday - which appeared to have ignored Beirut bombings on Thursday.

TIME reports founder and CEO Marck Zuckerberg explained this decision in a comment on his change of profile picture - filtered with French flag colors to show solidarity with those who mourn for Paris. Many people expressed their disappointment on Facebook's bias - both in profile picture flags and safety check features.

129 people were killed by ISIS terrorists in different parts of the French capital while 40 were dead in a bombing set off by the same terror group in Beirut.

"Many people have rightfully asked why we turned on Safety Check for Paris but not for bombings in Beirut and other places," Zuckerberg wrote.

The Safety Check tool, he explained, was initially for users involved in natural disasters in which they could mark themselves safe.

It was only until Saturday, though, that Facebook developed the feature for "more human disasters going forward as well."

"Thank you to everyone who has reached out with questions and concerns about this," he added. "You are right that there are many other important conflicts in the world."

"We care about all people equally, and we will work hard to help people suffering in as many of these situations as we can."

Meanwhile, another user commented a petition for Facebook to give its users more options "to choose any country's flag to honour victims of terrorism worldwide, or do not offer the option at all."

"Being from one part of the world does not make a life worth more than one in another part of the world - I hope that this petition can put pressure on Facebook to promote this view and give users the option to pay respect to innocent lives lost all over the world, regardless of geography and politics," the website states.

With hashtags #AllLivesMatter and #FacebookFlags, the website enumerated death tolls of recent attacks in Yemen, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Turkey, Kenya, Iraq, Nigeria, and Syria - where there are gunfire and bombings everyday.

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