Haiti quake: survivor search on Facebook
Updated on 14 January 2010
Thousands of pictures of missing people in Haiti have been uploaded to Facebook, as friends and relatives search for information on their loved ones.
Users have added nearly 2,700 photos to one Facebook group, Haiti earthquake, which had more than 90,000 members at lunchtime today.
As well as some images of the devastation following the earthquake, there are pages and pages of photographs of missing people, with contact details and requests they get in touch.
Searchers are also using Twitter to contact family and friends. @InternetHaiti forwarded messages, including:
@LadyDior47: Looking for my aunt!!! MARIE CARMEL CHARLES!!!!! #PauP #DELMAS #Haiti
@Marilu_Acosta: Any news on DENIS REGIS #7 rue Theodule-Hotel Christopher-Bourdon#haiti
@zaniane: Any news from BOUCIF BELHACHEMI, was at the hotel montana or karibe #haiti
According to Twitter.com, four of the 10 most popular topics posted on the site yesterday were related to Haiti, where the death toll from a magnitude 7.0 earthquake could run into the tens of thousands.
Among them were the terms Help Haiti, #Haiti and #Yele, a charity organization founded by Haitian-born musician and record producer Wyclef Jean. Yele Haiti's Twitter feed was the second-most visited account on Twitter yesterday, CNN estimated.
The microblogging site also played a pivotal role in disseminating news about the quake, with the first reports, pictures and developments throughout the day being posted by Tweeters.
The International Committee of the Red Cross set up the site www.icrc.org/familylinks to help seperated family members contact each other, and said around 1,360 Haitians, mostly in the United States and Canada, registered on the site within hours of it going live. Most appeared to be searching for relatives in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
