14 DAY TRIAL // A new Facebook feature that has been in testing for a while now has finally gone live, enabling users to more easily follow their elected representatives.
Town Hall is a feature designed for users in the United States which should help them find state and federal representatives based on their location. Users can then follow these individuals for updates or go ahead and contact them directly via their listed phone number and address or via Facebook Messenger if they are on Facebook.
"Building a civically-engaged community means building new tools to help people engage in a thoughtful and informed way. The starting point is knowing who represents you and how you can make your voice heard on the decisions that affect your life," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.
He adds that the more you engage with the political process, the more you can ensure it reflects your values. "This is an important part of feeling connected to your community and your democracy, and it's something we're increasingly focused on a Facebook," the Facebook CEO said.
How it works
Town Hall includes state and federal officials and will soon receive an expansion to include local elected officials for the top 150 biggest cities in the United States, a feature that Facebook hopes to expand in the future.
If users like or comment on a post created by one of their elected officials from their news feed, they will see a feature that allows them to directly contact the representative. If they go through and send them a message, users are invited to post about contacting the lawmaker to let others know about their initiative, and perhaps, push them to do the same.
Talks about this particular feature have been around for a while as Facebook rolled out Town Hall as a test to a small number of users. Now that it has finally gone live, it remains to be seen just how much it will be put to use.
