Facebook first announced the Voting Information Center in June with a stated goal of registering 4 million voters through its apps (June's Voting Information Center launch), then followed up by pinning a voter-registration box at the top of the News Feed for every US user of voting age starting July 3 (the pinned News Feed registration box). Today's news makes that effort official product: a dedicated hub on both Facebook and Instagram with state-by-state registration and voting details.
The build-out echoes Facebook's 2016 election tool, which surfaced candidate and race-level information but stopped short of this year's registration push — and the company later reported the effort helped register 4.4 million voters, topping its own target (the 4.4M voter registration tally).
First-order effects
Facebook and Instagram users get a single state-by-state surface for registration deadlines and voting mechanics, replacing scattered posts with a pinned, persistent hub.
The center operationalizes Facebook's 4-million-voter registration goal, giving the company a measurable civic deliverable heading into the 2020 election.
Second-order effects
Rival social platforms face pressure to match equivalent election-information surfaces or cede the 'civic infrastructure' framing to Facebook during the cycle.
Instagram's inclusion extends the tool beyond Facebook's older-skewing core audience, putting registration prompts in front of younger users who historically engage less with civic content.
Third-order effects
If the pattern from 2016's candidate-info tool to 2020's registration hub holds, election-cycle civic products become a recurring platform obligation rather than a one-off feature — with registration counts turning into a public accountability metric regulators and critics can track each cycle.
The trend: Social platforms are institutionalizing election-information products as standing infrastructure, measured in registered-voter counts rather than engagement.
Joint industry statement on ongoing election security collaboration between tech companies and USG agencies tasked with protecting the integrity of the election https://twitter.com/...
Today we're launching the Voting Information Center, a place on Facebook and Instagram where everyone in the US can get the details they need to navigate this year's elections. You can find it by tapping on the menu button on @facebookapp and @instagram. https://twitter.com/...
Even as we press Facebook to do more to police dis/misinfo this election season, I want to uplift its new Voting Info Ctr. Created at our urging, it's crucial for giving voters accurate info and registration opps amidst COVID & rampant suppression efforts. https://about.fb.com/..…
This can be cast as evading responsibility: Facebook promises less than a traditional news site to uphold standards and correct errors. But it's also true that no matter what they did, citizens would need effective bs detection.
@josh_lawson Same here Josh! Proud of our work on this on the Elections team @BPC_Bipartisan and excited to be joining you @Facebook starting on Monday! Small world we work in 🤣
I get what they're trying to do, but what's the credibility of a place where neo-nazis can recruit, Q Anon theories promulgate and random people you've never met harass you in DMs giving civic lessons? If it were an IRL place I wouldn't go to that part of town to get educated. ht…
Plz don't use Facebook's voter tools and voting center. We have many excellent voter resources that won't sell our data or create secretive partnerships w/ the #DarkMoney #KochNetwork (for data mining & profits) https://twitter.com/...
Facebook is rolling out a new tool to fight the spread of misinformation with an election center feature. @PamelaBrownCNN presses the head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook about the standards the tech company is using to flag or take down posts containing false information. ht…