Ahead of the 2022 Assembly Elections, Twitter on Thursday, December 13, announced new initiatives to help citizens with the right knowledge before they cast their vote. With Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand going to the polls this year, Twitter said it is committed to enabling people to make informed decisions when exercising their rights.
"Twitter is what's happening, and events of political and civic significance always find a place among the conversations on the service," Payal Kamat, Public Policy and Government, Twitter India, said in a statement.
"In line with that, we have been working in partnership with official authorities, including the Election Commission of India to empower every #JagrukVoter on Twitter, and we will continue to harness the power of the Open Internet to strengthen civic dialogue and encourage quality participation this election season," Kamat added.
Twitter said it will be launching a customised emoji, as well as a notification and reminder mechanism so that people can voluntarily sign up for reminders on the day voting begins. Further, a voter education quiz will engage people in Q&As, equipping them with necessary facts about the polls. “People will be able to sign-up for a reminder notification by Liking the campaign Tweet and can also choose to opt out at any time by replying to the notification Tweet with #Stop. From the day voting begins, anyone who Likes the Tweet will receive a personalised notification with a reminder to vote, along with a call to action that will encourage them to Tweet their commitment to be a #JagrukVoter -- further inspiring actual voter participation,” Twitter said in a statement.
Twitter has also launched an information search prompt with the Election Commission of India and Chief Electoral Officers to make it easy to find credible and authoritative information for the Assembly elections 2022. These prompts provide credible, authoritative sources of information when people search with related keywords on Twitter's Explore page, the platform said. The prompt will direct people to resources where they can access reliable information about candidate lists, voting dates, polling booths, and more.