Why has the horror of Ankara been forgotten?

You were Charlie, why are you not Ankara?


We live in a world that is sadly becoming accustomed to daily terror attacks. On 13th November, the Western world was jolted out of stupor when 130 lives were lost in Paris.

Social media lit up with an outpouring of love to France. We were horror-stricken at what had happened. We all changed our profile pictures to bear the French flag, and we all posted a status to show we did not condone the attacks on innocent lives.

What did become evident in the wake of such a tragedy were the attacks forgotten by the world’s media. In the same week as the Paris attacks there were attacks in Lebanon and Baghdad. These were mostly ignored by the media.

Where is Facebook’s filter this time around?

The Ankara bombing, which happened on Sunday, has sparked outrage. There is no filter on Facebook, no safety check and few messages of love for the victims of a suicide bomb in Turkey’s capital.  At least 34 people have been confirmed dead and a further 125 injured.

James Taylor, a Facebook user and resident of Ankara, asked readers to imagine what the response would have been if the attacks had happened a little closer to home. He said: “It is the equivalent of a bomb going off outside Debenhams on the Drapery in Northampton, or on New Street in Birmingham, or Piccadilly Circus in London. Can you imagine being there? Can you imagine the place you walk past every day, the bus stops you used, the roads you cross being obliterated. It is very easy to look at terror attacks that happen in London, in New York, in Paris and feel pain and sadness for those victims, so why is it not the same for Ankara?”

Facebook has no option for us to show our sympathy for the latest in a long line of terror attacks. Each life is worth the same and surely, it’s time we treated it as such?