False information triggers Facebook safety check in Bangkok

Its algorithms still played a bad turn to Facebook. On 27 December, they activated the "Safety Check" after an explosion in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. However, the events took place last year at the Hindu Shrine of Erawan.

Thai users have been notified that they are safe and sound around 9 pm, and the alert disappeared an hour later. Few details were available about the place and time of the explosion. In addition, news about the event referred to the attack that killed some 20 people at the Erawan shrine. What really happened to justify the activation of Safety Check?

Is Safety Check really up to date?

According to our colleagues in The Verge, the social networking giant said that this feature "was activated in Thailand after an explosion". In addition, "the firm always performs an audit". However, although no explosion occurred, the page of the alert was titled "The explosion in Bangkok". Now Facebook tries to figure out how links related to the August 2015 bombing have been added to this page.

Since its introduction in 2014, Safety Check has been activated 39 times. It has proven useful in emergency situations such as the Paris or Brussels attacks. Nevertheless, it happens that Facebook is wrong. Thus, during an explosion in Pakistan in March, an SMS that does not mention the location of the event has been broadcast in several countries.