After FB, Twitter announces new measures to empower US voters

San Francisco: After Facebook, Twitter has announced new measures to empower more people to join in the conversation, participate confidently and make their voices heard before the US presidential election on November 3. In partnership with National Voter Registration Day, Twitter said it is making its biggest push ever to encourage people to register to vote and confirm their registration status.

"We're rolling out new tools and in-app experiences that will put voter registration resources at the public's fingertips and support the essential voter registration efforts happening across the country," the micro-blogging platform said in a statement on Tuesday.

Now, every person with a Twitter account located within the US will see a home timeline prompt, encouraging them to register to vote or confirm their registration via TurboVote, a tool from the non-profit Democracy Works, and to Tweet out these resources.

They will see a push alert that directs them to a landing page with additional voter registration information. There will be "a promoted campaign from @TwitterGov, which includes a takeover of today's US Promoted Trend Spotlight with registration resources from TurboVote". The prompt and push alert is available in over 40 languages, depending on each person's individual app settings, Twitter announced.

Facebook on Monday said it has helped 2.5 million people register so far this year across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger before the National Voter Registration Day. Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Facebook is bracing for tough measures to restrict content in case the November elections in the US descend into chaos or violent protests.

Twitter also launched a new US election hub recently that makes it easy to find reliable news and information, expanded its policies around election misinformation and required high profile election-related accounts to increase their security. During the 2018 US midterm elections, 68 per cent of people who used TurboVote resources via Twitter turned out to vote.

"While nine in 10 people who use Twitter daily say they plan to vote in the upcoming US elections, over half say they still need more information about the candidates on their ballot and how to vote in 2020," the company said.