Amid the rising cases of COVID-19 cases in the United States, people are evidently concerned about the upcoming polls in November. After what many consider a controversial win for Donald Trump during the 2016 ballots, voters are a little more wary this time around. Twitter hopes to provide the public with a transparent platform to monitor real-time developments and news. Thus, the social networking service will launch an election hub which can be found just above the "Explore" tab.

Only users who are located in the U.S. will have access to the new feature which will be curated by a team of moderators in both English and Spanish. The election hub will likewise include Twitter Moments sourced from trusted news outlets. Other included options are updated local news, a tool that identifies candidates located in the same state as the user, and live streams of significant events and debates, according to an article published by The Verge.

The company published a statement that read: "Twitter wants to empower every eligible person to vote in the 2020 US election, and we're focused on helping people register, better understand the voting process during COVID-19 including early voting options, and feel informed about the choices on their ballot." Up until Election Day, public service announcements from non-partisan organisations for voting advocacy will be reportedly featured as well.

Ideally, these actions should benefit voters as it delivers all the essential information that they might need before or on Election Day. Earlier this year, Twitter already banned political ads. Moreover, in a bid to prevent misinformation, all tweets from politicians will be tagged whenever moderators spot content that might be potentially misleading.

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Staff at global social media platform Twitter have been ordered to work from home to protect against coronavirus infection Photo: AFP / Glenn CHAPMAN

Facebook is also prepared with a similar approach wherein it will no longer accept new political ads a week before the polls begin. It will also echo what Twitter has done and include a voter information resource link. This will be visible on the top-most section of Instagram and Facebook feeds. Moreover, posts from candidates who prematurely declare victory will purportedly be flagged by moderators as misinformation. Other social networking services have not yet disclosed their plans for Election Day.

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