With just a few weeks to go for Lok Sabha elections 2019, social media major Facebook has launched a feature 'Candidate Connect' through which Lok Sabha candidates can record their poll promises in 20-second videos.
The launch of the feature is based on Facebook’s research in the country so that people can directly hear views of candidates in their constituencies.
The election response team will be based in Singapore and will work closely with the Election Commission of India.
"We actually think the greatest contribution that we can make is to help everybody be more informed. Candidate Connect is essentially a visual guide for voters," Samidh Chakrabarti, Director – Product Management for Civic Integrity, Facebook, told PTI.
“People can access videos of candidates from other districts as well but it is actually intended to show up on the timeline of voters in a particular constituency,” he added.
Facebook is putting in place an election response team for India's general elections for monitoring and tracking of objectionable content in real time round the clock
The social media giant will also notify people about their respective polling dates tagged under ‘Share You Voted’.
As the Election Commission of India announced the poll dates of the general election for 2019, it had said that the model code of conduct and its pre-certified political advertising rules will apply to the social media as well.
On the direction of Election Commission of India, the social media platforms and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) have also submitted a ‘Voluntary Code of Ethics for the General Election 2019’ to the Chief Election Commissioner on March 20.
