Facebook has long been a cesspool of batshit political posts from friends and family alike, and now the company has gone and added another layer of muck: the ability to publicly endorse a candidate.
According to Mashable, the feature rolled out today. You can check out detailed instructions for how to endorse a candidate in Facebook’s Help Center, but it’s fairly simple. Visit your favorite candidate’s Facebook page, hit the “endorsements” tab on the side, and click the “endorse” button. You can decide who sees the endorsement, and you can also add a personalized note. May I suggest something along the lines of, “God, please let this election cycle end already.”
Beware, however, that if you make the endorsement public, it might pop up on the candidate’s Facebook page. It also looks like you can also endorse any candidate for political office, not just the big names, which means local politics across the country are about to get wild.
Facebook also sent over the following explanation by email:
This feature allows anyone on Facebook to show their support for a candidate by writing and sharing an “endorsement” explaining why they support them. This is a good way for people to voice their support for a candidate—if they so choose—and learn more about where their friends and family stand.
The added feature is yet another attempt by Facebook to coax its users into the political arena—it’s also made an effort to encourage people to register to vote. It’s unclear what Facebook will come up with next, but it can’t be any worse than our current electoral circus, so at least it has that going for it.