Facebook will launch a campaign this weekend to recruit volunteers from among its employees to lend a hand in American polling stations during the presidential elections on November 3, social network boss Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday.
"We are seeing a massive shortage of polling station staff,"
he explained in a post on his Facebook page.
This can
"lead to hours of waiting at the polls, which makes it more difficult for people to participate in the democratic process
," he said.
Read also: United States: the post office suspends reforms criticized for hampering postal voting
A message will be displayed at the top of the Facebook news feed urging Americans of voting age to register with local election officials to take care of polling stations in November.
The social network, which is striving to prove that it is now a major and responsible player, and no longer a vehicle of massive disinformation, had already unveiled in mid-August, an information center on the poll, a sort of one-stop shop on the model of that created on the new coronavirus, to dispense official recommendations.
Facebook faces all kinds of voter manipulation campaigns, driven from abroad or by American groups, to discourage certain groups of people from voting or to influence their choice.
The Californian group must show that it has learned the lessons of the 2016 elections, including the presidential election in the United States and the referendum on Brexit in the United Kingdom, marked by disguised influence campaigns, mainly orchestrated from Russia.
Facebook also provides free ads to state election authorities for recruiting assistance.
California has started running such ads and other states are planning to start, according to Mark Zuckerberg.
The Facebook co-founder and his wife donated $ 300 million to election officials for the purchase of materials or equipment to protect against the spread of the coronavirus.
"With the Covid affecting our communities, this election will be like no other,"
he commented.
"We are doing everything we can to help as many people as possible register and have their voices heard at the polls,"
he also added.
In the United States, the Covid-19 pandemic raises concerns about the desertion of polling stations and a massive postal vote with the risk of results that could be contested.