Did a Facebook glitch accidentally make us more compassionate?

On Sunday, Facebook once again activated its “Safety Check” feature in response to the bombing in Lahore,Pakistan.

Like this one sent to Daily Dot socialeditor Aly Keves.

Or this one sent to New York Times White House correspondent Michael Shear.

When Safety Check works well, it’s a pretty incredible tool for keeping in touch during a disaster.

It’s a feature that allows Facebook users who areneara natural disaster or terrorist attack to mark themselves assafe, which is visible to their friends and family. Since November’s attacks in Paris, this marks the sixth time the service had been used aftera terrorist attack (Paris, Nigeria, twice in Turkey,Brussels, and of course, Pakistan).

Facebook has struggled withaccusations of “selective humanity” in the face of terrorist attacks. Many have asked why the option to change your profile pictureto French and Belgian flags was created after those countries suffered attacksbut no such option wasavailable for Turkey or Pakistan and it’s a fair question.

Why do those of us in the Western world so often ignore atrocities when the victims don’t closely resemble us?

Even when it comes to Safety Check, Facebook’s been under a lot of criticism for activating it in places like Parisbut not for the Beirut attacks that happened just before.

And this isn’t just Facebook’s problem.It’s a media problem. When it comes to how themedia covers terrorist attacks, we havea tendency to cover events that either have a high likelihood of American victims or are geographically closer to us. In other words, sometimes we don’t get the full story. Here’s how Facebook’s errant notifications may have helped.

That one random glitchprompted media outlets that may have ignored the storyto devote more time and attention to the tragic bombing that killed at least 69 people and left hundreds injured.Outlets like Forbes, Fox News, CNET, Washington Post, and CBS all devoted standalone stories to the Safety Check glitch.

But knowing about a tragedy is one thing.Doing something about it is another.

The outpouring of support after the attackhas actually been similar to that of Brussels or Paris, frombuildings displayinglight-up Pakistani flagstoa slew of tweets,trending hashtags, and Facebook posts.

Is it possible that an accidental Facebook notification made America care about a terrorist attack on the other side of the globe more than it usually does? (Or maybe it was just the death toll that caught our eye, or theapparent targeting of Christians on Easter.)

Whatever our reasons, people seem to be mourning the Lahore attack witha similar level of empathy towhich wemourned Paris and Brussels.

And more compassionfor the victims ofterroristattacksisa good thing even when it happens by accident.