Online campaigning: Now, Facebook tool for nominees

JALANDHAR: When the reliance on social media for campaigning is already high, Facebook has introduced a new tool in India – 2019 Candidates Tools - for profiles and pages of candidates contesting parliamentary election. It will also enable all candidates to create and upload short videos of 20 seconds each for answering a setof four questions about their priorities.

A question about corruption has been included in the set. These videos will appear to their voters. FB has made it clear that only videos from official Lok Sabha caniddates will appear to voters before polling day and in case one was not a candidate then his/her videos would not appear to voters.

Providing the technical tips for making and uploading the videos, Each candidate would have to answer same set of questions after introducing themselves: What will you do to reduce corruption;what is the biggest problem in your area; what will you do about it if you are elected; and what past achievement shows that you will do a good job as a member of Lok Sabha? Candidates will have only 20 seconds for each video. The voters on FB would be able to watch videos from different candidates in a few weeks. “In Punjab, 80 lakh voters are on Facebook and FB is more popular among Punjabi netizens than other social media platforms. This will be a major tool for the candidates to reach out to their constituents,” said Himanshu Pathak, Punjab Congress vice-president, who also runs his own company for social media campaign and election strategy.