France to beef up emergency alert system on social media

France's Interior Ministry announced plans on Tuesday to beef up its emergency alert system to the public across social media.

The ministry said in a statement that from June during immediate threats of danger, such as a , the ministry's alerts will be given priority broadcast on Twitter, Facebook and Google as well as on French public transport and television.

The statement said that Twitter will give "special visibility" to the ministry's alerts with a banner.

In a specific agreement, Facebook will also allow the French government to communicate to people directly via the social network's "safety check" tool, created in 2014.

The ministry said that this is the first time in Europe that Facebook has allowed public authorities to use this tool in this way.

This announcement comes as a much-derided attack alert app launched in 2016 called SAIP is being withdrawn after malfunctions.

© 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Citation: France to beef up emergency alert system on social media (2018, May 29) retrieved 29 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2018-05-france-beef-emergency-social-media.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

Facebook faces Indonesia investigation over privacy breach

5 shares

Feedback to editors