Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Facebook has long positioned itself as a place where communities can share information during a crisis. Today, the company said it will start giving local governments and first responders the ability to send alerts to their communities during an emergency. Facebook already offers tools like Safety Check, which lets you tell others that you’re safe during an emergency, and Community Help, which offers aid during disasters.
When a Facebook page operated by a government or first responder marks a post as a local alert, Facebook says it will “greatly amplify” the post to followers of that page in their News Feeds and send the alerts as notifications to them. If you don’t follow a page that sends a local alert, the only way you can see it is…