Facebook has kicked off a nationwide voter registration drive, its first ever, to urge U.S. citizens to get out and vote on Election Day in November.
Facebook has introduced a new feature that would remind users to register for the voting. Starting Friday, Sept. 23, users of the social media site in the United States who are 18 years and above will receive a "Register Now" reminder on top of their News Feed.
This reminder will be sent out to users over the course of next four days, as revealed by the company to publication USA Today.
Facebook has previously tested a voter registration drive on its California users at the time of the primaries. Now, the social media platform is expanding the feature's reach and looking to target nationwide users.
"We thought we had a unique ability and responsibility to show people this reminder that they should be checking their registration so they can participate in the election," revealed Katie Harbath, Facebook's director of government outreach.
Interestingly, Facebook has been clandestinely working on nudging people to vote for the past 8 years. The process, however, has been a selective one until now and has resulted in nearly 1.5 million people taking part in the electoral process.
So if you are in the United States and are aged 18 years or older, expect to see the "Register Now" banner on your News Feed for the next few days. If you are a U.S. citizen but haven't registered, simply click on the banner and Facebook will redirect you to the government's election portal, vote.USA.gov.
You will then be taken through the process of registering for the voting in November. Once you have signed up for the electoral process, you have the option of sharing the status on Facebook with your circle.
Facebook is optimistic that this move will aid in helping spread the word and get more U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote to register for the November election. The communal interactions that the social media site offers will hopefully help drive the voter registration numbers up.
Facebook, however, is not the only social media platform that is tapping into its user base to drive up voting registrations for the election season.
Earlier this week, its rival Snapchat, in partnership with Democracy Works' (a non-profit organization) TurboVote, started a campaign on the app. This tool enables one to check if they are eligible to vote right from the Snapchat app. YouTube too is running the campaign #voteIRL, which targets the younger demographic and shows off short clips that illustrate how simple the process of registering is for those wishing to vote.
