Facebook starts rollout of candidate positions feature

Political candidates can now upload their positions on issues to Facebook, the latest step taken by the company to embed its technology in the political process.

Starting on Thursday afternoon, politicians in the United States can add their position on a range of issues to their Facebook page. Their positions are sketched out in small, one or two-sentence blurbs.

{mosads}The feature will be visible to users starting in October.

“With the heightened interest and conversation on Facebook around the 2016 elections, we have been exploring ways to support a suite of features that add more structure to how Americans learn about candidates at both the national and local level,” said Samidh Chakrabarti, a product manager for civic engagement at Facebook.

“Facebook’s new Issues tab for political Pages is a great way for candidates to connect with potential voters by sharing clear and direct statements about what they stand for and what they believe.”

Candidates in local elections can customize their pages to display relevant issues in their races.

Internet platforms are increasingly doing more to provide users with information about political candidates. Google similarly offers information on some candidates’ positions from its search pages, though some have raised questions about how effective and fair those results are.

More broadly, tech firms have become heavily involved in activities around the election. Facebook, Google and Twitter, for example, were all involved in some of the presidential primary debates.

That involvement comes as the companies try to make money off of the elections through lucrative digital ad sales to candidates and outside groups. They also have a stake in numerous Washington policy issues — and spend handily on lobbying to press their case on Capitol Hill.