The Internet Goes All Out For The 2014 General Election
By Edward Cardenas
SOUTHFIELD (CBS Detroit) - Facebook users logging onto the social media site Tuesday were greeted with a prompt at the top of the page stating "It's Election Day" which allowed users to click on an "I'm a Voter" button and get a sticker on their News Feed.
Facebook stated that people in the US on Facebook who are over 18 will see the message at the top of their News Feed reminding them that it's Election Day and encouraging them to share with their friends that they've voted. For the first time ever this year, it will be available in multiple languages, including Spanish, Chinese and Korean.
In addition to the United States, the megaphone was deployed for elections in countries outside the US, including India, Brazil and Indonesia this year.
The prompt also has a button which directs users to 2014.votinginfoproject.org, which is a collaboration of technology companies "to make sure all registered voters in the United States have the information they need to Get to the Polls on November 4th."
There are reports that efforts on social media sites may have an impact on turnout.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Facebook has deployed a number of tools since 2008 to help get out the vote. The report stated that in 2012, Facebook's data scientists published a paper that showed that positive social pressure convinced people to vote. Their conclusion: "It is possible that more of the 0.6 percent growth in turnout between 2006 and 2010 might have been caused by a single message on Facebook."
In a report by Vox about the study, Facebook stated it will not be using the voting button in any user experiments this year
Additionally, today's Google Doodle on the search engine's homepage showed a ballot box with a ballot submitted every few seconds. When users click on the Doodle, voters can enter their address to find their exact polling place.
This report was updated at 4:23 p.m.Tuesday.
