Facebook is opening its experimental polling app to all users
According to Facebook, Forecast will “encourage measure, respectful conversation,” but for a platform riddled with misinformation, that’s a bit hard to believe. It doesn’t help that the predictions boil down to a binary choice, and there’s speculation that the predictions could reinforce existing beliefs or influence real-world outcomes.
Facebook launched a beta version of Forecast in June, so it has done some testing. It says all content must abide by its moderation guidelines, meaning all questions will need to be approved before they are published. Time will tell if those safeguards are effective.
1/7: Today, we’re launching Forecast, a community for crowdsourced predictions, starting with a focus #COVID19 and its impact on the world. Read on or join the waitlist here: https://t.co/hL8XmQ4gXO pic.twitter.com/mF83QFVgfa
— Forecast (@ForecastByNPE) June 23, 2020
People in the US and Canada can visit the Forecast website beginning today. Forecast is also available as an iOS app.
