Following earthquake, Facebook activates 'safety check' feature

The feature is designed to check the safety of people living in earthquake-hit areas

Facebook activated on Monday its safety check feature after parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan were jolted by a massive earthquake of about 7.5 magnitude on the Richter Scale.

The feature is designed to check if people in the earthquake-affected areas are safe.

Soon after the feature was activated, people from the quake-hit areas started being marked as safe to the relief of their loved ones.

In Pakistan, areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were badly hit whereas Lahore and Islamabad were also slightly affected.

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“Safety check is our way of helping our community during natural disasters and gives you an easy and simple way to say you’re safe and check on all your friends and family in one place, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had said after launching the feature in 2014.

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Mark was in Japan when he launched the feature, saying tsunami in that country inspired him to introduce the tool.

“It's meaningful to be in Tokyo to announce this because the great earthquake and tsunami a few years ago inspired us to build the first version of this for Japan. Now we're glad to have this ready to serve everyone in the world.”