By Naomi Gleit, VP Social Good
As part of our ongoing commitment to build a safe community, today we’re announcing several updates to Safety Check:
- Introducing Fundraisers in Safety Check: people in the US will have the option to start a fundraiser from within Safety Check
- Expanding Community Help: Community Help will be available on desktop and for all crisis types where Safety Check is activated
- Adding more context with a personal note: now people can share a personal note in their Safety Check News Feed story with friends and loved ones
- Introducing crisis descriptions: get more information about a crisis from NC4, our trusted third party global crisis reporting agency, within the Safety Check tool
Introducing Fundraisers in Safety Check
Following a crisis, one way people give and request help is through fundraising. To make this easier, we are introducing Fundraisers in Safety Check. Within Safety Check, people will be able to create or donate to a fundraiser for charitable and personal causes to help those in need. Fundraising provides a way for people who are also outside of the crisis area to offer help. Fundraisers in Safety Check will start to roll out in the coming weeks in the US.
Expanding Community Help
Since we launched Community Help earlier this year on iOS and Android, we have been inspired by the offers and requests for help generated by the community and want to make sure that those in need are able to access Community Help through any platform. Community Help will be available in the upcoming weeks on desktop, giving people another way to access the tool. Additionally, Community Help is now available for all crises where Safety Check is activated.
Adding more context with a personal note
After marking themselves safe, people share additional information to help reassure friends they are safe and to provide more context about the crisis. To make this easier, people can now add a personal note to tell their friends more about what’s happening from within the Safety Check tool. This note will appear in the News Feed story that is automatically generated when people mark themselves safe.
Introducing crisis descriptions
When people receive Safety Check notifications, they may have limited information about the crisis. To help provide additional context on crises and make sure people have the information that they need, we have started adding descriptions about the crisis from NC4, our trusted third party global crisis reporting agency.
Safety Check has been activated more than 600 times in two years and has notified people that their families and friends are safe more than a billion times. Keeping the community safe means everything to us at Facebook and we hope that these updates to Safety Check continue to do just that.