Double standards of Facebook after the attack in Paris

By: Ahmad al-Sibai

Double standards that the West has adopted in the approach to issues related to the Middle East slowly creep and the social networks that are all considered - and in the East and the West; and educated and uneducated; and poor, and the wealthy - space to communicate and express their views.

This dual approach was evident on the social network Facebook, which is immediately after the attacks in Paris, where they killed and wounded hundreds of people, activate the Safety Check for all who are in the area of ​​the French capital.

This function allows you to confirm the safety of friends and acquaintances who are near the attacked areas and establish communication with friends who live in neighborhoods that were the target of attacks.

Facebook has activated this service after the nuclear disaster and tsunami that occurred in Japan in 2011 and then included this function for the people living near areas affected by natural disasters, as has happened in Afghanistan, Chile, Nepal and the Philippines .

Option Safety Check is not the only service offered by the social network Facebook has offered residents of Paris, but launches a new application in solidarity with their suffering, which gives its users the ability to view their profile photos added watermark French flag.

Despite the fact that all over the world arrived condemnation of these attacks, activists on the social network wonder why Facebook ignored bombing in Beirut, which took place a few days before the attack in Paris, leaving behind dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded and has not been requested, or any other application in solidarity with the people of Lebanon. 

Therefore conclude that Facebook has "double standards" and attaches more importance to the victims of the West in relation to the victims of terrorism in the Middle East.

Reply Mark Zuckerberg

Lebanese blogger Joey Ayoub, in his post divided on Facebook, more than 10,000 times wrote a critique of the social network: "We do not get the option to safety on Facebook, or information about the solidarity of people who have a million followers on the social networks, we do not have the power to influence political change, so we should point to this discrimination. "

In his Tweet, Ayoub said: "They seem to be victims in Beirut are not important as far as the Parisian."

In this context, the user of Twittersheikh_akbar published the following: "The French in Paris are more valuable than the Lebanese in Beirut, do not condemn an ​​attack, and forgetting to another!"

Although the Middle East more than 114 million people use Facebook, the social network has never stood by the people of the region in the trials through which, by offering specific support or by activating an option for safety, would not you at least slightly reduce the extent of damages that almost daily applied to these peoples.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of social network Facebook, to all of these questions are answered in the mail to your profile, where he changed it your profile picture in the French flag: "Many people have rightly asked about the reasons why the option is included Safety Check for Paris, and not for Lebanon and other places, "and continues:" Until yesterday, there was a policy of activating this option only in the areas affected by natural disasters, but we now change this policy. Our goal is that by this function is used in man-made disasters . About all care and diligence as we work to provide assistance to all people who are suffering in all places. "

Manu Muskaan on your profile comments and answer Zuckerberg said: "Two days ago, were killed and wounded dozens of people in Beirut, hundreds of thousands of people were killed in Syria and Iraq, hundreds were killed in Palestine, and Facebook did not respond, while because of the dozens killed in Paris, the whole world has totally lost, and Facebook changed its policy. "

  • 16 Nov, 2015
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