Facebook's security team is set to protect the accounts of its users in Ukraine. The social media company announced it will enable the lock profile tool for Ukrainians, and they are building a "Special Operations Center" so people can monitor what is happening in Ukraine.
The Facebook lock profile can provide users a one-click access to additional security and privacy features, according to Meta's Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher.
Gleicher added that when their Facebook profile is locked, users who are not their friends can't download or share their profile picture or even see their photos on their timeline.
This is not the first time that the social media giant has encouraged users in unsafe areas to lock their Facebook profiles, according to Engadget.
Most recently, the platform enabled the lock profile tool for people in Afghanistan last year amid the withdrawal of the United States from the country.
The social media company has noted that it can be helpful for activists, journalists, and others who may be at a higher risk of being targeted, according to Reuters.
Facebook has also formed a dedicated team to keep a close eye on what is happening in Ukraine. Gleicher added that in response to the unfolding military conflict in Ukraine, they have established a Special Operations Center to respond in real time.
Gleicher said that the center is staffed by experts, including native speakers, so they can monitor the situation and act as fast as possible.
According to USA Today, thousands of people on Facebook shared an image purporting to show Ukrainians praying the conflict would not escalate to war. These images were posted amid the rising tensions in the days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The caption of a Feb. 18 Facebook post reads "Ukrainian Christians pray outdoors in the snow for their country in this phase of war danger.
The post got more than 13,000 shares in a week. A Facebook post making the same claim, which was posted on Feb. 19 by Christian vocalist and author Sheila Walsh, garnered more than 22,000 likes and 19,000 shares before it was corrected. Other duplicates are still online and are being shared.
While the photo is from Ukraine, it has been taken out of context. It turns out that the photo has been online since 2019. This means that the picture is more than 2 years old.
On October 2019, Christian blog God Reports published the photo in an article with the headline "Why have these Ukrainians been praying daily on their knees for years?" Word&Way published the article again and added the image 5 days later.
According to the reports, the people in the photo were praying in Kharkiv, which is a city in eastern Ukraine, for peace and religious freedom.
The caption reads that Ukrainian believer have been kneeling and praying, usually in frigid temperatures, in Kharkov's city square daily for 5 years.
In 2014, pro-Russian protests spread across Ukraine in response to the pro-Western Euromaidan movement. Several demonstrations were held in Kharkiv, which is the second-largest city in Ukraine.
