CrisisResponse
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Facebook expands 'community help' hub for people in quarantine
As Facebook sees "unprecedented" demand for its services, the company is now encouraging its users to help out their neighbors. The social network is expanding its "community help" feature to reach people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Facebook provides more ways to help in a crisis
Facebook is offering two new ways to contribute when lives are on the line. For starters, it's launching a Blood Donations on Facebook feature that moves beyond signing up for donations to a full-fledged hub where you can find people and facilities looking for donations. You'll not only see nearby requests, but the urgency and specific details (say, the eligible blood types). From there, you can get in touch if they don't accept walk-ins.
Facebook Community Help crisis tool is no longer limited to individuals
Facebook has been evolving its Safety Check feature over the last year, adding complementary capabilities to go alongside it and building it into a crisis hub. Last February, Facebook introduced Community Help, a feature that allowed users to find and provide help during a crisis and in September, it launched Crisis Response, a one-stop spot where people could access Safety Check, Community Help and media, like articles and videos, related to an ongoing crisis. Now, Facebook has announced some changes to Community Help that will allow organizations and businesses to post in the forum rather than just individuals.
After Las Vegas shooting, Facebook and Google get the news wrong again
The worst mass shooting in modern US history took place last night in Las Vegas, where a gunman killed at least 58 people and injured more than 515 others, according to the latest reports. Not long after the unfortunate event, Facebook and Google began populating news stories on their respective platforms, as they often do. And, in what's become a problematic trend, some of the articles being highlighted and distributed to millions of people were from unreliable sources. This time, among them were a trolling thread on internet forum board 4chan and a completely false story from a far-right conspiracy website.
Google adding Public Alerts to Maps, keeps you in the loop in times of worry
You can't deny that Google often hands out marvelous tools for the masses to utilize (yes, some can be a miss), and today the King of Search is launching a fresh virtual apparatus as part of its Crisis Response project. Dubbed "Public Alerts," the feature is accessible from within Google Maps, keeping you in the loop during times of high alert. Your search query will trigger things like weather relevant to your area, public safety and earthquake alerts -- all of which are provided by the NOAA, the National Weather Service and the US Geological Survey. The Crisis Response squad says its goal is "to surface emergency information through the online tools you use everyday," which is a great idea, but we honestly hope that you don't have to use it very often. Those of you stateside can start using Public Alerts now -- as for the rest, let's hope that the search giant brings its alerts to a map near you sooner rather than later...
