Facebook has enabled its "Safety Check" tool following the Tuesday morning terrorist attacks at Brussels international airport and a city metro station, which killed at least 34 people.
Safety Check, which emerged following the Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011, was conceived as a way for people to communicate after natural disasters. The tool lets you find and connect with friends in the area.
When you visit the Safety Check page, you'll see which of your friends, if any, have listed their current city as Brussels. You can comment to them, asking if they're alright, and mark them safe if you know they're okay.
The tool also provides some information about the attacks.
"Reports indicate multiple explosions at the Zaventem Airport in Brussels, as well as at least one metro station in the city," it reads. "The airport has been shutdown and all flights diverted. The metro, tram, and bus systems have also been shut down citywide."
Until the Paris attacks this past November, Safety Check was only used for emergencies like earthquakes or hurricanes. But the social network decided to activate it following the attacks in the French capital.
At the time, the decision got some pushback from those who pointed out that Facebook did not activate Safety Check following the suicide bombs that occurred in Beirut, Lebanon a day earlier. In response, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the tool was a work in progress and that Facebook would move to use it for more "human disasters" going forward.
In a separate blog post at the time, Alex Schultz, Vice President of Growth at Facebook, said that Safety Check is less useful "during an ongoing crisis, like war or epidemic...because there isn't a clear start or end point and, unfortunately, it's impossible to know when someone is truly 'safe.'"
Still, some on Twitter this morning questioned why Safety Check was not activated for the recent suicide attacks in Istanbul and Ankara, among other incidents throughout the Middle East.