Chipping in:
Facebook’s Safety Check allows users to note they’re safe, check on others
Tech giants pitch in to help with wildfire relief efforts, including a Facebook feature to let others know you’re safe.
As California wildfires rage north and south and more than 100,000 residents have been forced to flee their homes, some of the state’s biggest tech companies are doing what they can to help.
Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted Friday morning that Apple is donating to relief efforts.
“Praying for the safety of our neighbors, loved ones and all those affected by the rapidly spreading fires in California,” Cook said on Twitter. “We’re grateful to the firefighters and first responders working to keep everyone safe. Apple is donating to relief efforts for Northern & Southern California.”
Apple on Friday did not return requests for
more information about its donation.
Facebook has activated its Safety Check feature, which allows users to mark themselves safe, check on their friends or loved ones, or offer help and services to those who have been affected by the fires.
Facebook turned on Safety Check on Thursday afternoon for the Camp Fire in Northern California, and Friday morning for the Woolsey Fire in Southern California, a spokeswoman said.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted Friday afternoon about what his company is doing.
“We are mobilizing to support those impacted by the #CampFire, #HillFire and #WoolseyFire with SOS Alerts, and committing resources from @ Googleorg to aid those in need,” he said.
A Google spokeswoman said Friday the company is trying to determine which organizations it will support. She also pointed to Google.org’s $1 million donation, announced in late October, to the First Responder Support Network. It’s a Bay Area nonprofit that seeks to help firefighters and other first responders who are suffering stress and trauma from doing their jobs.
Cisco on Friday launched a donation campaign in which it
will match employee donations of up to $25,000 to benefit the American Red Cross. The company will adjust its response based on new information and employee response, a spokeswoman said. Intel is also matching employee donations.
As for Twitter, the company said through a spokeswoman that it is “using our platform to amplify critical information from responders and local news while the fire zone is still active. We
will look at ways to support the relief effort as the situation develops.”
Meanwhile, HP Enterprise pointed to its longtime support of the Red Cross Disaster Responder Program, and said through a spokesman that its human resources department is contacting employees to see if they have been affected and need help.
A GoFundMe spokeswoman said that its page for verified fundraising campaigns for fire victims,
https://www.gofundme.com/cause/californiafires, will be updated regularly.
Last year, Silicon Valley companies also pitched in during the Wine Country fires in the Bay Area. Among them were Apple and Facebook, which each donated $1 million to relief efforts. Apple also matched employee donations. Google gave $500,000.