Dating app giant Tinder has teamed up with French NGO “A voted” to encourage young people to vote during the presidential election. An unprecedented move in France.
Unlikely couples, giants of meeting app Tinder and French NGO “Vote” is a convincing example.From Thursday, February 17th to April 8th, the two partners promotional activity “Match Gen Z with the ballots!” In other words, encourage young people to vote in presidential elections, or at least encourage them to register on the electoral rolls. With a catchphrase: “If you’re dating downstairs…go downstairs and vote!” »
Specifically, ads will automatically appear on dating apps.When a user swipes their profile [en faisant glisser leur doigt vers la droite de l’écran si le profil leur plaît, vers la gauche pour l’ignorer, NDLR], they can also discover a four-part mini-video called a “swipe.” If they want more information, they’ll be sent to the “Vote” website, which brings together all the steps needed to take part in the 2022 presidential election. Register on the electoral roll for the public service.
The rise of politics on Tinder profiles
This friendly initiative might make you smile at first glance, but it reflects a darker reality: the abstention of young people. “This topic is not new, we’ve been talking about it for 40 years,” stressed NGO co-chair Flore Blondel-Goupil, who was interviewed by France 24. But this phenomenon is increasing among young people. The last regional election recorded a record abstention rate for the 18-25 age group. It was a real shock. The latest polls related to turnout in this presidential election — an election that doesn’t usually receive many abstentions — also offered record abstentions. There is a democratic error. ” indeed, According to a recent study59% of 18-30 year olds registered on the electoral roll plan to abstain in the first round of the presidential election.
Knowing that young people make up nearly 50% of Tinder members, Flore Blondel-Goupil believes, “This partnership represents a great opportunity to raise awareness as much as possible. It is now necessary to bring democracy back to where communication happens, where opinions are formed. According to the dating app’s makers, the choice of platform is relevant because mentions of the word “politics” in user biographies have increased by nearly 59% over the past 12 months.
The scourge of “registration errors”
However, being unregistered or “misregistered” mainly affects young people. “Of course, there are many factors in favour of abstention, such as lack of confidence in institutions and political leaders, lack of renewal of the political class, unrecognised blank votes. But within our organisation we have chosen to address ‘mistakes that particularly affect young people’ by primarily addressing Register “problems to solve grassroots problems,” the co-chairs noted.
“Poor registration,” that is, attaching to a polling station that doesn’t match the actual place of residence, is mostly related to moving. Young people often leave home to study. However, being a “misregistered” voter triples the risk of abstention. Overall, according to research by sociologist Céline Braconnier, some 7.6 million citizens were “misregistered” in 2017, 51 percent of whom were 25-29 year olds. For these “bad registrations” we have to add 3 to 4 million unregistered.
>> READ ALSO: “Presidential 2022: ‘Misregistration’ on electoral rolls, evil in France”
The Tinder to Save Democracies
This isn’t the first time Tinder has supported such a move. In the past, the dating platform has supported a campaign on consent in France. Abroad, she has been involved in similar operations, especially during elections in the US in 2020, Germany in 2021, Brazil in 2018 or the UK in 2019.
There is no way for dating sites to play politics. On Monday, February 13, Young with Macron (JAM) took to Tinder to try a major push to encourage young people to get on the electoral rolls. Tinder reacted immediately, threatening to ban these profiles created on their basis only within the framework of a political campaign.
Voting results
Voting doesn’t just rely on Tinder to get young people to vote. Since January 11, the NGO has also partnered with giant Meta by creating chatbots, ie digital and fun conversation spaces. “In parallel with digital initiatives, our organisations are also taking action on the ground, especially in the homes of young workers. The latter do not always know how to act. »
All of these communications intended to be registered on the electoral roll will close on March 4, the end of registration. “It will be interesting to see data on new registrants on this day to see if our efforts are bearing fruit. “We will have a thorough look at the abstention rate ahead of the April 10-24 deadline.