Facebook will be helping American voters by pinning the voting registrations links to the top of the news feed. According to The Verge's latest report, Facebook announced that a box with information about voter registration will be pinned on the top of the News Feed for every US user who is voting of age starting on July 3, Friday.
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The information about registering to vote, including a link to a state's registration website or a nonpartisan partner stating that states do not have voter information readily available online, will be shown in the box once it goes live.
In an open letter published on Wednesday, July 1, Facebook's vice president of global affairs and communications, Nick Clegg, announced that the voting boxes would be showing up the top of the News Feed.
"We understand that many of our critics are angry about the inflammatory rhetoric President Trump has posted on our platform and others, and want us to be more aggressive in removing his speech. As a former politician myself, I know that the only way to hold the powerful to account is ultimately through the ballot box," said Nick Clegg.
"That is why we want to use our platform to empower voters to make the ultimate decision themselves, on election day," he added on the open letter.
Facebook to pin voting boxes on top of its newsfeed
According to USA Today's previous report, a new Voting Information Center with authoritative information, including details about voter registration, and how and when to vote and vote by mail and information about early voting, was created by Facebook. The Verge reported that the social media platform will host more registration drives on Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook this summer.
The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a June 17th op-ed in USA Today that the social media company's goal is to help 4 million people register to vote; if Facebook succeeds, it will exceed the 2 million people the company says it helped register in 2016 and 2018.
"People want accountability, and in a democracy, the ultimate way we do that is through voting," wrote Mark Zuckerberg in the op-ed.
According to The Verge's previous report, the social media announced that was also rolling out the ability for users to turn off electoral or political ads from the candidates, all social issues, as well as Super PACs or other organizations that have the "Paid for by" political disclaimer on them. Due to the confusion caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, the company said that giving users clear information on voting will be more essential.
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