Flaunt your indelible mark on Facebook

On the lines of the 'I voted' drive that Facebook launched during the last elections in Australia and the US, the social networking giant has now come up with a new election-related feature — 'I’m a voter' in India — on Wednesday.

After exercising the adult franchise on Thursday, share and flaunt your experience on your Facebook page.

On the lines of the 'I voted' drive that Facebook launched during the last elections in Australia and the US, the social networking giant has now come up with a new election-related feature — 'I’m a voter' in India — on Wednesday. This exercise, the company claims, will motivate users to cast their vote.

According to Ankhi Das, public policy director, Facebook India and South Asia, Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected and a big part of that is its intimate relationship with democracy.

“Engagement is core to social mobilisation and opinion-building. For the first time in India, people over 18 using Facebook on their mobile devices will see a message at the top of their ‘News Feed’ reminding them that voting has started in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and they will be able to post a story to their Facebook timeline sharing with friends that they are voting,” Das said.

The message and “I’m a Voter” option will only be visible to voters on the day polling would take place in their respective areas.

As per Natures’ Study, an international science journal, about 3,40,000 more people turned out to vote in the 2010 US congressional elections because of a election-day message on Facebook.