People use Facebook to share lots of news, and over the past week, at least some of that news from people in Nepal was a simple “I’m safe.”
Seven Million People Used Facebook’s Check-In Feature After Nepal Earthquake
Safety Check allows users in a danger zone to send an “I’m okay” message to Facebook friends.
Dutourdumonde Photography/shutterstock
More than seven million people used Facebook’s emergency check-in feature, Safety Check, to let their friends on the service know they were safe following the deadly earthquake that hit last Saturday, according to a post from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. That’s roughly one quarter of Nepal’s entire population.
It was the first major test for Safety Check, which Facebook rolled out in October for scenarios just like this one. The feature prompts users located in the dangerous geographic area to send a notification to friends that they are okay. For many Facebook users, it was their first introduction to the product and how it’s used.
Facebook also prompted users to donate to Nepal over the past week, and said Thursday that it has raised more than $10 million. The company also donated an additional $2 million of its own.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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