Facebook accused of ‘selectively sympathizing’ over Paris attacks

Facebook's "safety check" feature and French flag watermark for profile pictures in response to the Paris attacks, has drawn ire from the users, questioning why it was not put to sympathise the bomb blasts hit the Lebanese capital Beirut a day earlier.

Soon after the series of deadly attacks hit Paris and claimed at least 129 lives late on Friday, Facebook reportedly launched the safety check notification feature whereby Parisians and those in the city at the time could "check-in" and let friends and family members know that they were safe amid the violence.

The social media giant had only previously implemented the use of the feature after natural disasters, recently during an earthquake which hit Pakistan and the subcontinent.

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A day later, Facebook also allowed users worldwide to show their solidarity with victims of the Paris attacks by adding a watermark of the French flag on their profile pictures.

“The reactions concerning the activation of the security check for Paris and not Beirut are seen through a long history of disregard for stories about people in the Middle East North Africa region,” Joe Khalil, an associate communications professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar, told Al Arabiya News.

“With this disparate treatment, social media seems to repeat how Western film and television limited access to Arab stories by Arabs,” he added.

A scathing Facebook post by Lebanese blogger Joey Ayoub, who was also one of the youth organizers of the “You Stink” protests that hit Beirut during in recent months, read: “Seems clear to me that to the world, my people’s deaths in Beirut do not matter as much as my other people’s deaths in Paris.”

Ayoub describes himself as “privileged Francophone community in Lebanon” and considers Paris his second home.

(Al-Arabiya)