Facebook launches Town Hall tool to find nearby lawmakers

New York March 28 (IANS) Facebook has launched a new tool that would make it easier for users to find and follow their elected representatives. The tool lists the officials based on users location and provide a fast access to them.

The new tool currently available in the US would help users to contact every official in their vicinity directly as the tool would provide users with the officials phone number address or a link to message them on Facebook (presuming the politician is on Facebook).

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said civic-minded features like Town Hall were becoming a bigger focus at his company technology website CNet reported.

The more you engage with the political process the more you can ensure it reflects your values. This is an important part of feeling connected to your community and your democracy and it s something we re increasingly focused on at Facebook Zuckerberg wrote in a post.

Town Hall would also include local elected officials for the 150 biggest cities in the US and the company hoped to expand this further.

In addition to Town Hall Facebook users that Like or Comment on a post from one of their elected officials from their news feed will see a new feature that invites them to directly contact their representative. Should the user follow through Facebook will then prompt them to post about contacting that lawmaker the report said.

The Menlo Park-based social media giant rolled out a similar feature during the US presidential elections last year which helped citizens make a voting plan to use on Election Day.

--IANS
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