Twitter: Political Donation Can Now Be Made By Clicking Tweets

Twitter intends to play a part in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, as it introduced a new functionality Tuesday that will allow its users to give political donations to their favorite candidates by clicking tweets.

The new initiative, which is made possible by a partnership with payment service startup Square, has a Contribute button embedded in a political tweet. This has almost the same functionality as the new Buy button that Twitter introduced on Monday, as HNGN previously reported. The button allows users to buy and sell merchandise without leaving the social media website.

"This is the fastest, easiest way to make an online donation, and the most effective way for campaigns to execute tailored digital fundraising, in real time," Jenna Golden, head of a unit dedicated to political advertising at Twitter, said in a blog post.

Experts believe that Twitter is more conducive to this kind of political initiative because most of its 304 million users are engaged with news and current events, according to Mashable. This supposedly allows the platform to adopt political features without any difficulty.

So far, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Scott Walker have already began their Twitter campaigns. Their posts, shown below, include the Contribute button that directs to a Send Money page via Square Cash.

Twitter will not take commission from the donations (although Square gets a 1.8 percent cut). This policy, however, is not based on pure altruism on the part of the company. Many see the initiative as a way to condition Twitter users to make more financial transactions within the social media platform. It provides a fresh opportunity for a company that is currently struggling to increase its audience, according to Reuters.

Tags

Twitter, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Scott Walker, Square