Voters can now get to know about the background of candidates contesting Assembly and Lok Sabha elections on their mobile phones as Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Facebook have joined hands to provide the information on candidates for free.
Voters will be able to access election candidates' criminal, financial, educational, professional information directly on their mobile via Facebook using USSD technology, a joint statement said.
Facebook for USSD is a technology that helps people access Facebook on phones without Internet.
USSD allows text experiences on phones that are richer than SMS and cheaper for the user than mobile Internet.
Users have to do is dial *325# from their mobile to access Facebook and select the election menu or directly dial *325*35# to access the election menu for no charge, it added.
"Over 82 million Indian citizens access Facebook regularly and an increasing number of users access the platform on mobile. Together with ADR...we hope to make information more readily available to users about the antecedents and performance of political candidates," Facebook India Director of Public Policy Ankhi Das said.
Das added the goal is to enable citizens to get involved in issues of governance.
"Voters will be able to know the poll worthiness of candidates - their educational, criminal and financial information - at their fingertips and choose wisely. Simply voting in an uninformed manner is not enough, citizens need to make an informed choice," Association for Democratic Reforms Founder and Trustee Trilochan Sastry said.
Facebook to provide information on Indian election candidates via mobiles | NDTV Gadgets
ADR Ties-Up With Facebook To Provide ‘Know Your Neta’ Service Via USSD
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has tied-up with Facebook to provide ‘Know Your Neta’ service on mobiles for free allowing users to access information on politicians.
Users will have to do is dial *325# from their mobile to access Facebook and select the election menu (option 6), or directly dial *325*35# to access it. Using this free service, one can find out who the candidates in a constituency are and ’like’ a candidate’s Facebook page from the same USSD menu.
The move is an interesting one especially since ADR has a MyNeta app for smartphones that provide the same information. With this move, they will be able to reach out to a larger audience. The smartphone app lets you compare background information of candidates contesting election and make an informed choice. The app also lets you see criminal, financial and educational information of your MP and MLA (Indian politicians). However, it will not let you ‘like’ Facebook pages.
When we tried out the service, it worked on Airtel network, but it did not on Vodafone. To make such a service work, it needs to work across all networks and that’s one area ADR needs to focus on. Established in 1999 by a group of professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, ADR’s goal is to improve governance and strengthen democracy by continuous work in the area of electoral and political reforms.
ADR Ties-Up With Facebook To Provide ‘Know Your Neta’ Service Via USSD - MediaNama
Voters will be able to access election candidates' criminal, financial, educational, professional information directly on their mobile via Facebook using USSD technology, a joint statement said.
Facebook for USSD is a technology that helps people access Facebook on phones without Internet.
USSD allows text experiences on phones that are richer than SMS and cheaper for the user than mobile Internet.
Users have to do is dial *325# from their mobile to access Facebook and select the election menu or directly dial *325*35# to access the election menu for no charge, it added.
"Over 82 million Indian citizens access Facebook regularly and an increasing number of users access the platform on mobile. Together with ADR...we hope to make information more readily available to users about the antecedents and performance of political candidates," Facebook India Director of Public Policy Ankhi Das said.
Das added the goal is to enable citizens to get involved in issues of governance.
"Voters will be able to know the poll worthiness of candidates - their educational, criminal and financial information - at their fingertips and choose wisely. Simply voting in an uninformed manner is not enough, citizens need to make an informed choice," Association for Democratic Reforms Founder and Trustee Trilochan Sastry said.
Facebook to provide information on Indian election candidates via mobiles | NDTV Gadgets
ADR Ties-Up With Facebook To Provide ‘Know Your Neta’ Service Via USSD
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has tied-up with Facebook to provide ‘Know Your Neta’ service on mobiles for free allowing users to access information on politicians.
Users will have to do is dial *325# from their mobile to access Facebook and select the election menu (option 6), or directly dial *325*35# to access it. Using this free service, one can find out who the candidates in a constituency are and ’like’ a candidate’s Facebook page from the same USSD menu.
The move is an interesting one especially since ADR has a MyNeta app for smartphones that provide the same information. With this move, they will be able to reach out to a larger audience. The smartphone app lets you compare background information of candidates contesting election and make an informed choice. The app also lets you see criminal, financial and educational information of your MP and MLA (Indian politicians). However, it will not let you ‘like’ Facebook pages.
When we tried out the service, it worked on Airtel network, but it did not on Vodafone. To make such a service work, it needs to work across all networks and that’s one area ADR needs to focus on. Established in 1999 by a group of professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, ADR’s goal is to improve governance and strengthen democracy by continuous work in the area of electoral and political reforms.
ADR Ties-Up With Facebook To Provide ‘Know Your Neta’ Service Via USSD - MediaNama
