Following a series of shootings and bombings in Paris, social media networks like Facebook and Twitter are helping users located in Paris post about their safety and allowing users outside of Paris show solidarity with victims of the attack.
The attack took place late Friday evening in the French capital, with terrorists targeting six sites around the city, including holding around 100 hostages at the Bataclan concert hall, where American blues band Eagles of Death Metal were playing. A bombing also took place near the French sports stadium, the Stade de France. In total, there were 123 reported deaths, 352 reported injured, with at least 99 of those being seriously injured.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, and a series of raids have been conducted in Belgium in connection with the incident.
Facebook's tool is called Safety Check, and it allows users located in Paris to mark themselves and others they might be with as "safe." Once they have been marked as safe, their friends will be notified and users on Facebook can head to the app to make sure their friends are ok. The tool comes as officials in Paris are warning residents to stay indoors, with the attack being the deadliest on French soil since World War II and the deadliest on Western soil since September 11, 2001.
Facebook is also allowing users to post a French flag filter to their profile picture to show solidarity with the victims of the attack and with the people of France in general.
"My thoughts are with everyone in Paris tonight," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a post. "Violence like this has no place in any city or country in the world. We've activated Safety Check, so if you're in Paris you can mark yourself safe or check on your friends and family."
At the same time as Facebook activating its Safety Check tool, Twitter activated the Moments tool, highlighting top news tweets about the attack as a way to keep people informed about what was going on. Twitter also highlighted tweets of prayers and good wishes from celebrities around the world, with tweets ranging from Emma Watson to Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, the hashtag #prayforparis became widely used, with around 6.7 million people using it within 10 hours.
Social media users began to show so much support for the people of France that as the night continued on, posts that weren't aimed at showing solidarity with victims of the massacre seemed out of place.
