With the U.S. Presidential election coming up, Snapchat will once again be looking to get more young people involved in the ballot, while it’s also initiating more measures to protect users from misinformation during the campaign.
Snap’s past efforts on this front have prompted more young people to register to vote, and this time around, Snap will be looking to reach even more potential voters with its various initiatives.
As per Snapchat:
“At Snapchat, we believe that exercising one’s right to vote is one of the most powerful forms of self-expression. As a platform with significant reach with U.S. voters - of the 100M+ Snapchatters we reach in the U.S., over 80% are aged 18 or older - we want to make it as easy as possible for our community to learn about the issues and register to vote.”
First off, Snap has announced a continuation of its partnership with Vote.org, which will enable Snapchatters to check their registration status, register to vote, sign up for election reminders, and map out a plan for Election Day – all without leaving the app.
This is an example of the voter registration tools that Snap provided in 2020, and Snap will be launching an updated version of the same ahead of this year’s poll.
Snap’s been working with Vote.org for some time, with initiatives like this helping the organization broadcast voting info to younger audiences.
And those efforts have been effective.
Snap says that, in 2018, it helped over 450k Snapchatters register to vote, while in 2020, that increased to 1.2 million. The capacity to reach younger, often first-time voters, via a platform that they trust, can clearly help to boost civic engagement, which is how Snap can play a valuable role in the upcoming vote.
In addition to this, Snap says that it will once again be hosting its flagship news show Good Luck America, which will be focused on election-related content.
“Good Luck America will cover the biggest moments from the campaign trail - including rallies from the leading presidential candidates, coverage of the upcoming national conventions, and Election Day itself. The show will also launch a new series: the Good Luck America Campus Tour, which will travel to colleges and universities in battleground states, including HBCUs and community colleges, to hear how young people are feeling about the election and the issues they care most about.”
Snap says that it will also be partnering with NBC News to provide additional updates and info.
Snap will also be partnering with vetted media outlets to ensure accuracy of the content presented in the app, while it’ll also restrict the ability for misinformation to spread by moderating public content before it’s distributed in the app.
“We also vet political ads through a rigorous human review process, which involves checking for any misleading use of content, including the use of AI to create deceptive images. In addition, we partner with the nonpartisan Poynter Institute to independently fact-check political ad statements.”
As the stats show, Snap has played a significant role in boosting civic engagement, and it’s good to see Snap looking to build on this, while also ensuring moderation and vetting of election-related news.
And as more young people look to get involved in politics, Snap can play a major role in facilitating such.
