The social media connection Facebook activated its "safety check" link Tuesday in the immediate aftermath of the bomb explosions that rocked the Belgian capital of Brussels.
Unlike normal Facebook updates about users' lives, the safety check feature automatically sends a member's status to friends if they are marked as safe after the terrorist attacks. Facebook users can also check on friends in the vicinity of the attacks at the Brussels airport and at a subway station not far from the European Union headquarters.
Facebook first used the feature after a deadly earthquake last April in Nepal, and later after the terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in November.
Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was criticized, however, for not activating the safety check feature after other terrorist attacks in Beirut and Baghdad.
Some material for this report came from AP and Reuters.
