NEW YORK: Facebook is adding a feature to make it easier for people affected by disasters to find each other locally to provide and receive help, with Saudi Arabia among the countries initially covered.
It will also be available initially in the United States, Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand, Facebook officials said.
The world’s largest social network said its “Community Help” will activate after natural disasters and major accidents as a part of “Safety Check,” a related feature that allows Facebook users to assure others that they are safe.
The company’s designers envisioned a virtual classified advertising section where people near each other can offer shelter after a forest fire, seek food in the wake of an earthquake and meet other immediate needs in an organized way.
“It’s going to help easily match people who are looking to help with those who need help within the community,” Preethi Chetan, a Facebook product designer, told reporters in a briefing.
Facebook, with 1.9 billion monthly users as of December, rolled out Safety Check in 2014. The feature has sometimes stumbled.
Last year, after a suicide bombing in Pakistan, users as far away as New York received notifications asking if they were safe. Others said they were alarmed by vague text messages to mobile phones that asked, “Are you affected by the explosion?“
Safety Check was used for the first time in the United States in June after a gunman massacred 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
In designing Community Help, Facebook officials said they consulted with emergency relief organizations such as the Red Cross.
Community Help will at first be used for natural disasters and incidents such as building fires, not for mass shootings or bombings, the company said.
Facebook said it plans to expand to other countries and other types of incidents after testing.
The new feature comes with a few safety guidelines, such as a warning to users that if they meet strangers to arrange disaster help, they should do so in a public place, officials said.
KSA among testing grounds for Facebook's new ‘Community Help’ feature
KSA among testing grounds for Facebook's new ‘Community Help’ feature
Israel arrests 2 Turkish CNN journalists over live broadcast outside IDF HQ
- Police said reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman were detained on suspicion of filming a sensitive security facility
- Since the Gaza war began, restrictions have expanded significantly, including tighter limits on filming soldiers on duty and sensitive or strategic sites
LONDON: Israeli police have arrested two Turkish CNN journalists who were broadcasting live outside the Israel Defense Forces’ headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Police said the pair were detained on suspicion of filming a sensitive security facility, according to the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit.
Reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman, from the network’s Turkish-language channel, had been reporting near the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters on Tuesday after Iran launched another missile barrage at Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel.
During the live broadcast, two men believed to be soldiers approached the crew and seized the reporter’s phone, according to initial reports and a video circulating online that could not be independently verified.
Police said officers were dispatched after receiving reports of two people carrying cameras and allegedly broadcasting in real time for a foreign outlet.
עיתונאים של CNN טורקיה נעצרו לאחר שצילמו את בסיס הקרייה@NoamIhmels pic.twitter.com/t8a5P9yXfw
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) March 3, 2026
Israel’s long-standing military censorship system, overseen by the IDF Military Censor, has long barred journalists and civilians from publishing material deemed harmful to national security.
Since the Gaza war began, restrictions have expanded significantly, including tighter limits on filming soldiers on duty and sensitive or strategic sites.
After a series of similar incidents involving foreign media — most of them Palestinian citizens of Israel working for Arab-language and international media, along with foreign journalists — during the 12-Day War, Israeli police halted live international broadcasts from missile impact sites, citing concerns that exact locations were being revealed.
The Government Press Office later imposed a blanket ban on live coverage from crash and impact areas.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir subsequently ordered that all foreign journalists obtain prior written approval from the military censor before broadcasting — live or recorded — from combat zones or missile strike locations.
Police said that when officers asked the CNN Turk crew to identify themselves, they presented expired press cards and were taken in for questioning.
Burhanettin Duran, head of Turkiye’s Directorate of Communications, condemned the arrests as an attack on the press and said Ankara is working to secure the journalists’ release.
