It is now possible to start News F petitions on Facebook. The feature is designed to help users collaborate on a political cause in their region.
As TechCrunch reports, the Community Actions were rolled out in the US in January and will gradually be available in other countries.
That’s how it works
Users can create a Community Action with a title, description, and image. Relevant government agencies and officials can be tagged which are hereby notified and can respond to the petition. There is a large “support” button on the Community Action which like-minded people can click on.
These actions are also available on the Community Actions discussion feed:
- Leaving comments
- Creating fundraisers
- Organizing Facebook Events
The number of supporters is visible below the Community Action. Names of individual supporters, however, are only displayed to their friends, unless they are pages or public persons.
Chances and Risks
The idea behind Community Actions is to bring neighbors together to demand changes from their local and national elected officials and government agencies. A big advantage is effort, with which users can pronounce themselves for such a cause. They just have to click on “support”, without additional registration or the like. Thus, the inhibition threshold of participation is very low and more votes can be collected.
On the other hand, there is a risk of Community Actions being misused to spread populism and misinformation and to stir up users against politicians and government agencies and thus putting them under pressure.
Facebook has taken measures to ensure the appropriate use of Community Actions. A combination of user-flagging, proactive algorithmic detection and search personnel should see to order being maintained.
Conclusion
Of course, Community Actions can be abused for anti-social purposes. However, this is the case for all platforms on which people connect. No reason to demonize the feature just yet. We are curious about how it will develop.