Twitter on Thursday introduced a sequence of initiatives to empower residents with the suitable data earlier than they forged their votes within the upcoming Assembly elections in 5 states.

Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur, and Goa will probably be held between February 10 and March 7 in seven phases with the counting of votes on March 10. In all, elections will probably be held for 690 meeting seats, and 18.3 crore folks, together with 8.5 crore girls, will probably be eligible to forged their votes within the 5 states.

“Elections are when people come to Twitter to find credible information about voting, to learn about candidates, and their manifestos, and to engage in healthy civic debate and conversation. As a service for public conversation, Twitter is committed to enabling people to make informed decisions when exercising their civic rights,” Twitter mentioned in a press release.

Twitter’s initiatives, powered by an Open Internet, are directed in the direction of not simply making certain a excessive voter turnout but in addition aiding in making certain voters are concerned, engaged and knowledgeable all through the election cycle, it added.

As a part of the initiatives, Twitter will launch a customized emoji that may additional be supported with a notification and reminder mechanism, which can permit folks to voluntarily sign-up for reminders on the day voting begins.

Further, a voter training quiz will interact folks in Q&As, equipping them with essential details concerning the polls, the assertion mentioned.

Twitter mentioned it has launched an info search immediate with the Election Commission of India and Chief Electoral Officers to make it simple to search out credible and authoritative info for the Assembly elections.

These prompts present credible, authoritative sources of data when folks search with associated key phrases on Twitter’s Explore web page. The immediate will direct folks to sources the place they’ll entry dependable details about candidate lists, voting dates, polling cubicles and extra.

In addition to English, the Search Prompt will probably be obtainable in Hindi, Punjabi, and Konkani, and will probably be supported by a number of hashtags.

Besides, Twitter will probably be internet hosting workshops and coaching periods for non-profits throughout the 5 states, which will probably be aimed toward growing literacy supplies and pre-bunks to sort out misinformation across the elections.

“… and events of political and civic significance always find a place among the conversations on the service. Public discourse is shaped by these conversations, and we recognise the responsibility that it places on us – to ensure that people are met with reliable and authentic information as they go out to vote,” Twitter India Manager Public Policy and Government Payal Kamat mentioned.

She added that the corporate has been working in partnership with official authorities, together with the Election Commission of India, and can proceed to harness the facility of the Open Internet to strengthen civic dialogue and encourage high quality participation this election season.