Following the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, in which 129 people were killed, Facebook offered users the option to have the French flag as their profile picture background. The reason for this petition is to ask Facebook to refrain from bias by offering users the option to have the flag of any country that has come under terrorist attack as their profile picture background, or to not offer the option at all. 

Facebook has over 1.5 billion users - that's 20% of the world population - and by choosing to offer the option to support just one Western country it sends out a terrible message to those in other countries affected by terrorism which are already ignored or under-reported in Western media. In turn this will only exacerbate the "them and us" divide and lead to more hatred towards the West, as well as potentially fuel already-rising extremism that can result in appalling incidents such as what happened in Paris.

Either Facebook should remove the option, or offer users the option to choose flags, in order to show an equal level of solidarity for fellow human beings who have endured attacks of a similar magnitude, and in many cases continue to on an ongoing basis.

To put this in context, here are just a few death tolls of recent attacks:

France, January 2015, Charlie Hebdo shooting - 12 deaths

Afghanistan, October 2015, U.S. airstrikes on MSF hospital - 30 deaths

Lebanon, November 2015, suicide bombing - 43 deaths

Turkey, October 2015, suicide bombing - 102 deaths

Kenya, April 2015, Garissa University College attack - 147 deaths

Iraq, July & August 2015, car/truck bombings - 176+ deaths

Egypt, October 2015, plane bombing - 224 deaths

Nigeria, since January 2015, Boko Haram attacks - 500+ deaths

Yemen, March-September 2015, civil war - 13+ deaths every day

Syria, since March 2011, civil war - up to 150-200 deaths every day

Being from one part of the world does not make a life worth more than one in another part of the world - I hope that this petition can put pressure on Facebook to promote this view and give users the option to pay respect to innocent lives lost all over the world, regardless of geography and politics.