Facebook swaps 'Like' for 'Safe' during natural disasters

Jacob Aron, technology reporter

(Image: Sipa Press/Rex Features)

When natural disasters strike, most people's first instinct is to check whether their friends and family are safe, but more tech-savvy individuals might choose to update their social networking status. Now you can do both, thanks to a new initiative being trialled by Facebook in Japan.

The social network's Disaster Message Board, which is currently only accessible in Japan, lets users mark themselves as "Safe", much as they can currently "Like" status updates. Users can also check their friends' current city, mark them as being safe and post comments with details of their whereabouts.

It is not the first time social networks have been put to good use following natural disasters. An app called Ushahidi lets aid workers check-in to share their location with others in the surrounding area, while last year crowdsourcing websites helped map radiation in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1d0887bf/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Conepercent0C20A120C0A20Cfacebook0Eswaps0Elike0Efor0Esafe0Ed0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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