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"If this is a genuine public safety feature, if Facebook really are using Safety Check out of concern for their users welfare, then they should fully accept the
by seanp2k2 9y ago
"If this is a genuine public safety feature, if Facebook really are using Safety Check out of concern for their users welfare, then they should fully accept the concomitant responsibility. They should expend real resources to liaise with the relevant agencies and ensure that Safety Check is deployed only when appropriate, that it is accurately targeted and that it helps rather than hinders relief efforts.
If Facebook wish to rely on their usual excuses of "move fast and break stuff" and "it's not our fault, it's the algorithm", then we should see Safety Check in those terms - as a careless and cynical effort to boost engagement metrics.
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100% agree. I think it's a well-intentioned effort gone wrong because the tuning is so off. I know a few engineers at Facebook who work on algorithms + related tooling, I'll make sure they see this.
- jakeogh 9y agoExcellent. I appreciate that. From my perspective well-intentioned is charitable for a social engineering platform. I have no doubt that is an accurate description for the vast majority of people involved, including the engineers you know, but this is almost a law of physics, it's too valuable to not be worth using; it's much more useful than old-school media: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajes.2017.76.issue-2/issuetoc http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajes.2017.76.issu...
- afro88 9y agoSimple solution: have a "ask X if they're safe" button that friends/family can press. If someone presses it, that person gets a push to mark themselves safe. They don't get a push otherwise.
- eatsfoobars 9y agoActually, this button already exists [1]. [1]: https://www.facebook.com/help/516656825135759 https://www.facebook.com/help/516656825135759
- donkeyd 9y agoThat will have the flip side of family members getting extra worried if not marked safe, because Facebook wasn't checked for example.
- Already__Taken 9y agoYou always had that though. And you can't automatically answer it for users from device activity because that would violate someone's privacy.
- wapz 9y agoI'm guessing most family members are most likely not going to ask the question on facebook instead of just call their loved ones or send a text or email. My personal line of thinking is (maybe check facebook if they're super active to see if they said they're ok). Send a text or email if I'm a little worried. Call if I'm very worried. After a text or call I wouldn't go back and push the ask button on FB.