Will the smartphone be a weapon to remobilize young people when half of them are thinking of abstaining for the presidential election?
The surprise success of the Elyze application
“shows that nothing is lost”
and that
“we have to go talk to them where they are”
, believes Grégoire Cazcarra, 22, president of the Les Engagés association and co-creator of the service. .
Leading downloads on iPhone and Android, it exceeded 750,000 installations in ten days and should exceed one million at the start of next week.
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“political thing”
A nod to
“a college friend who says she is lost in the face of politics”
, Elyze
“was designed for 18-25 year olds by taking up the codes”
to which this connected generation is accustomed.
Concretely, it is inspired by the online dating service Tinder by putting the Internet user in front of 500 proposals from presidential candidates, but anonymized.
Slide your finger to the right if you agree, to the left if you disagree… after a hundred
swipes
, the Internet user discovers which candidates he is most in tune with.
"Elyze's objective is to get a foothold in the campaign issues"
in the face of a political landscape that seems vague and this
"without having the impression of doing a homework for school"
, continues Grégoire Cazcarra.
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A few days before Elyze was put online, the Minister Delegate for Citizenship Marlène Schiappa had summoned the main social networks. Objective, to invite them to set up mechanisms to encourage their young users to register on the electoral lists and then to go to the polls. They will also be used to distribute practical information, such as the deadlines for registering (March 2 on the Internet, March 4 at the town hall), the dates of the ballot, the documents required to vote... A necessary step when many young voters do not consult the traditional media. This collaboration is reminiscent of the one set up in the spring of 2020.The platforms had been called upon by the government to highlight official health information on the Covid-19 pandemic and encourage the French to respect confinement and barrier gestures.
Call for influencers
Asked by Le
Figaro
, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat explained that they have several projects for the coming weeks, which will ramp up as the first round approaches.
We will thus find information panels recalling the key dates and the methods of the ballot, stickers and augmented reality filters to encourage voting on D-Day... Snapchat will also join forces with Le Monde for a political program interactive where users of the social network will be able to express themselves on ten campaign themes.
The premiere is scheduled for January 28.
YouTube will highlight the productions of general media in a new tab dedicated to the presidential election. He will also launch a video information campaign in February, to remind people how to register on the electoral lists. The video platform should also mobilize YouTubers so that they encourage their fans to go to the polls.
“The influencers have a real strike force and I am impressed with their aura with the youngest
,” underlines Grégoire Cazcarra.
"It's good if they take democratic subjects and explain the importance of going to vote."
Facebook will also call on Instagram influencers to promote a project launched this week by the NGO Voted.
The latter has partnered with WhatsApp messaging to design a conversational robot (chatbot) that allows you to simply check your registration on the electoral lists.
Half of young working people are indeed still attached to their parents' polling station,
"which multiplies by three the risks of abstention"
and exposes them to the risk of being struck off, underlines the co-president of the NGO, Dorian Dreuil.
The Facebook group will unveil the rest of its device in February.
