Social network adds a report button that flags suicidal content for review by a dedicated team to try and help.
Facebook has rolled out new tools in the US that aim to help prevent suicides, allowing users to report content for review and encourage the vulnerable to get help.
The tools build on a reporting feature implemented in 2011, which passed details to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the US, and the Samaritans in the UK. The new initiative involves a trained team, more resources and features to help those at risk of suicide or self-harm.
Facebook has warned that overlapping national probes into its privacy policy could severely endanger the European Union’s economy if such a fragmented strategy is continued and applied to other businesses.
Data protection authorities from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany in February formed a task force to deal with Facebook’s new privacy policy, introduced late January. They suspect that the new policy violates EU privacy laws. French, Spanish and Italian authorities later joined the group.
Judge threatens social network with fines of €250,000 a day over ‘datr’ cookie, which records visits to many websites whether or not user has Facebook account.
A Belgian court on Monday gave Facebook 48 hours to stop tracking internet users who do not have accounts with the social network or risk fines of up to €250,000 a day.
Facebook said it would appeal against the order, which followed a case lodged by Belgium’s privacy watchdog in June saying the US company indiscriminately tracks internet users when they visit pages on the site or click “like” or “share”, even if they are not members.
German police on Wednesday launched nationwide raids targeting social media users who posted racial hatred on Facebook and other online networks. No arrests were made but computer equipment, cameras and smartphones were seized in the first-ever such mass raids targeting online hate crime.
Policy Observatory