Technology

The Rest of the World Can Now Tell Everybody on Facebook They Voted

Facebook will extend its “I Voted’’ button to the rest of the world this year. AFP/Getty Images

Remember back on Election Day in 2012, when you logged onto Facebook and were immediately asked if you’d like to post a digital pin announcing to your followers that you voted?

This year, the social networking giant will extend the option to the rest of the world. Or at least the rest of the voting world.

PC Magazine reports:

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If the button encourages people to vote, that’s probably a good thing. (One might argue people shouldn’t be motivated to vote based on social media, but such is life.)

No real harm and thus no foul on Facebook’s part here. But let’s just bear in mind that this marks yet another opportunity for users to let everybody know something they probably don’t really care about. And that then serves as another opportunity for Facebook itself to gauge the political engagement of different people in different parts of the world. Which, logically, serves to help them figure out which ads to serve to given constituencies. Aye, democracy.

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