Social Media and Tech Firms to urge US Citizens to Vote

Condemned by lawmakers for unable to stop false and inflammatory information about disruptive political issues, social media and tech companies say they are doing their best to boost voter turnout for US congressional elections next Tuesday.

The involvement of sites that requests younger users is encouraging to some democracy advocates, who worry about lower electoral participation by younger voters.

Facebook Inc, Snap Inc and other firms will send a reminder to users to vote and link to a nonprofit guide for identifying the correct polling place, ballot items and time. Santa Monica, California-based Snap-on Thursday said it would send a rare blast message to all of its US users on election day, Nov. 6. The message will include the link to poll location information. Snap typically sends such messages only on holidays.

In the previous congressional elections in 2014, only 17 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds casted their vote, though some opinion polls say that this year the proportion could be much higher.

According to opinion polls and nonpartisan forecasters, Republicans have a better chance of keeping control of the Senate.

Democrats are generally favoured to win the 23 seats they need to wrest the majority from Republicans in the US House of Representatives, an advantage they could use to block President Donald Trump’s agenda of hardline immigration policy and other Republican positions that are anathema to Democrats.