France ending terror alert app, pledges new outreach

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS (AA) - Pledging to ramp up other public outreach alerts, France's Interior Ministry on Tuesday said it was ending a smartphone app meant to warn people of potential terrorist threats.

The public alert and information system app known as SAIP was co-developed by the Interior Ministry and the Government Information Service (SIG) in the wake of the deadly Paris attacks of January and November 2015.

As of Friday, June 1, the application will no longer be active. Instead, the ministry is planning to boost its alerts on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, and Google), as well as on public transport and TV, to warn people in case of major danger, such as a terror attack.

Twitter will give "special visibility" to the ministry's alerts with a banner, and Facebook will also allow the government to communicate to people directly via the social network's "safety check" tool, created in 2014, according to the ministry.

The special agreement between the French government and Facebook is the first of its kind in Europe, as the social media giant allows officials to use it this way.