Kolkata: In the aftermath of the earthquake that stuck Nepal on Saturday, several social media networks and mobile applications have come up with features that helped millions of users locate their dear and near ones.
Facebook came up with an application ‘Safety Check’ inviting users to “mark themselves safe” if they are in the quake-ravaged Himalayan nation. Others can also check who all are currently in the affected areas and if they have marked themselves safe.
Google too has activated their ‘Person Finder’, a tool that was developed in the aftermath of the 2011 Haiti earthquake. It lets people create a ‘record’ of them, so that other users could track their location and subscribe to updates about their locations. The tool also lets you embed it on your website to enable people to search or track others locations. Even popular messaging services like WhatsApp and Viber chipped in.
Twitter, the popular microblogging website came in very handy for Indian ministers and officials and for once their social media strategy was spot on in their efforts to coordinate relief and help millions in distress post Saturday. India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and government officials overseeing evacuation of Indians stranded in Nepal have been active on the site, where people have posted complaints, information and SOSs calls for rescue and relief. She personally responded to thousands of such messages directing officials to take measures immediately.
Her tweets had links to important numbers and whoever is in charge of her social media management has made sure that the account is accessible, even late in the night. Swaraj’s account has also put out numbers of the local officers in Nepal who people can turn to for help.
“It has been the most effective tool to coordinate our efforts in Nepal. We have tried to attend to as many messages as possible and many have been rescue from far flung areas due to the same,” India’s Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said.
Unfortunately though, the disaster also showed the dark side of the social media, as many lost the plot and used the platforms for rumour mongering claiming that an impending earthquake is about to take place. In their efforts to proclaim authenticity such posts gave credit to Nasa of giving such information.
The rumour took such proportions that the Indian Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had to issue a statement in parliament.
“Many comments come on social media that earthquake is going to happen at this hour. We should adopt restraint and not spread rumours on social media. I also appeal to people not to pay attention to such rumours being spread on social media,” the minister said.
Some politicians and business houses tried to cash on the disaster and were severely slammed by the netizens. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, was forced to deleted a tweet about the earthquake.
Online eyewear retailer Lenskart, started a promotion that called on users to “shake it off like this earthquake”. Later it apologised saying it had “referred to the earthquake in poor taste” and was completely unacceptable. It also said it had put in place safeguards to “ensure that is never ever repeated”.
Even one news media got it all wrong. ScoopWhoop posted an article headlined “16 Thoughts That Went Through Everyone’s Mind When The Earthquake Happened” that included numerous perky entries. Later, the site’s editor-in-chief Sriparna realising the gravity of the situation and issued an apology that said “Sorry, We Messed Up”. She also offered to donate a month’s salary to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
“Such insensitive statements on social media about the disaster in Nepal showed how far people can go to gather few minutes of attention. It brought out the good and bad of the platforms simultaneously,” said sociologist Dibendu Gupta.