Election Commission of India teams up with Facebook to encourage youth to vote

Facebook will remind users who have recently turned 18 to register to vote.

This is the first time Facebook’s voter registration reminder has been rolled out across India keeping the first time voters in mind. (REUTERS)

The Election Commission and Facebook on Monday announced a partnership under which the social media giant will remind the youth who recently turned 18 to register to vote by sending them reminders on their Facebook profile.

Under the campaign, all users who are going to turn 18 between now and December 31 will get a "birthday wish" message on their birthday with a reminder encouraging them to register with the poll panel to vote.

To those who have already turned 18 this year, same reminder will be sent on November 30.

The reminder will be sent in 13 languages -- English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Assamese, Marathi and Oriya.

The message will have a "register now" button which will take the users to the National Voters' Services Portal upon clicking.

"I am happy to announce that the Election Commission of India has launched a special drive to enrol all prospective and eligible young citizens of India as voters who are turning 18 years or more than 18 years on January 1, 2018," said Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti in a statement.

"This partnership of the Election Commission with Facebook for the dissemination of Information will help us reach out the young digital community of India in fulfilling our mission 'No Voter to be Left Behind' and 'Every Vote Counts'."