Facebook aims to connect elected officials with their constituents
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Through the Town Hall tool, Facebook allows constituents to easily find and connect with their elected officials. Johanna Huckeba/azcentral.com Wochit
“Fake news” and “alternative facts” spread through social media during the 2016 election, prompting some soul-searching about the impact of social media on democracy.
Since then, Facebook has launched an effort to allow users to become more engaged and better informed. As part of this, it introduced on March 27 a tool called Town Hall.
This month, Facebook added three features to the application that allows U.S. users to more easily connect with their elected representatives.
When users share their street address with Facebook on the Town Hall page, Facebook will display the pages of their local, state and federal officials, including office addresses, phone numbers and sometimes email.
“Our goal is to help people build the communities they want by making it easier for them to engage and have a voice in government on a daily basis, not just Election Day,” said Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesman. “In addition to helping people on Facebook find and connect with their elected representatives, we also want to make it easier for elected representatives to find and engage with their constituents.”
‘Badges,’ ‘insights,’ ‘targeting’
To activate these features, users turn on a “constituent badge” that displays anytime they like, comment on or share one of their elected officials’ posts. Anyone can see the badge. Facebook added this feature to help elected officials better identify those who may live in their district.
If users change their address, the badge will disappear from previous posts. Facebook limits the number of times a user can change their address. The company wouldn’t reveal the exact limit on address changes.
The “constituent insights” feature helps Facebook users find news stories about their elected officials and district.
The officials will be able to see these stories as well, giving them an opportunity to comment on them, Stone said.
The new “district targeting” feature helps both officials and constituents have a place to connect and discuss issues in the district. Elected officials can direct posts at their constituents or send them direct messages through the feature.
‘A civic engagement tool’
For some Arizona officials, such as state Rep. Lela Alston and Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo, it’s too soon to know how useful the new features will be.
State Sen. Katie Hobbs said she wasn’t aware of Town Hall until last week but didn’t see it replacing face-to-face interactions.
“I am pretty accessible to my constituents, and since my district is urban and compact, an in-person town hall is extremely feasible and would be a preferable option for me,” she said.
But others saw the potential and applauded Facebook for trying to increase political engagement.
Before Friday, state Rep. Ken Clark was not aware of the Town Hall feature. After looking at Town Hall, he said he might use it.
“It’s nice to see Facebook doing this kind of thing,” Clark said. “I would like to see more of Facebook combating the paid fake-news articles.”
Robbie Sherwood, spokesman for Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, said Town Hall hasn’t yet had a noticeable impact on engagement between the mayor and those who follow him on Facebook.
Sherwood said he hasn’t seen many comments by constituents identified with the badge, but he said he is looking for them.
“As a civic engagement tool, there seems to be potential for people to connect with their representatives,” he said. “I hope the awareness does grow for Town Hall.”
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