Facebook gets out the vote with visuals in San Diego
Facebook has brought its voter registration drive to the streets of San Diego in a f lashy way.
Last June, the social network’s CEO announced creation of an online voter information center to encourage people to vote in the 2020 U.S. elections. Its goal is for 4 million voters to register.
Next week is the official kickoff of Facebook’s related project of outdoor murals painted by five culturally diverse artists urging people to vote. Each of the five “Voting is Voice” artworks displays a QR code and a website URL that links to Facebook’s Voter Information Center detailing statespecific tips for registering to vote.
San Diego is one of 10 U.S. cities in which the artworks will be on display until after November’s presidential election. They were pasted along the facades of of five buildings in hightraffic downtown locations in mid-September following consultation with the Downtown San Diego Partnership and private property owners.
Two are just east of San Diego City Hall on C Street near Fourth Avenue; one is at 1265 Island Ave., a block northeast of the San Diego Central Library; another covers the facade of the temporarily closed House of Blues at 1055 Fifth Ave., and a fifth entices voters from across from the Cowboy Star restaurant at 655 10th Ave
Jessica Shaefer, who supervises Facebook’s public art partnerships, explained that Facebook long has had an Artists In Residence (AIR) program in which art ref lecting different cultural backgrounds and gender identities is displayed in its offices. Now it is moving onto public streets with a nonpartisan patriotic message.
Facebook works with cities to identify spots that are meaningful and politically neutral. “All 10 cities were chosen by Facebook’s policy and government team based on a number of factors,” Shaefer said. The cities were determined to be effective targets for the voter initiative and have a need for voter education.
Its goal is to have all 50 murals — five in each of the 10 cities — in place by the
beginning of National Voter Education Week on Monday.
Marshall Anderson, a Downtown San Diego Partnership vice president, helped Facebook find mural locations in central San Diego in need of a little love. “This project breathes new life into the heart of San Diego and also inspires people to get out and vote,” he said.
Facebook long has been under fire for not fact-checking political posts, allegedly censoring conservative voices and allowing Russian trolls to fuel discord during the 2016 presidential election. Early last month, Zuckerberg announced the voter information campaign and a roll-out allowing users to turn off political advertising if they prefer.
In another action, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, last month pledged to spend $300 million before the November election to bolster safe and reliable voting.
Testing Trump: The same day that President Donald Trump revealed his positive COVID-19 diagnosis, the movie “Trump Card” was being premiered in Atlanta by its co-director and creator, Dinesh D’Souza.
The former San Diegan moved to Houston a couple of years ago, but his production company remains in San Diego.
The controversial author and filmmaker personally introduced his anti-socialism documentary, “Trump Card,” Thursday to more than 1,000 people at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s 2020 “Road to Majority” conference in Atlanta.
The film will be released to the public on DVD on Oct. 6 and on video-on-demand beginning Oct. 9.
Trump was sent a copy of the DVD, D’Souza said: “He has the movie. He has Tweeted out a trailer regarding the movie and the DVD — but I don’t know if he’s watched it.”
The president did not take part in the film. However, episodes from his early life were re-created that used his own words, D’Souza said.
Rather than examining the Trump presidency, the film targets socialism. D’Souza portrays socialists as tearing down American institutions — “setting fire to churches, breaking windows, pulling down statues.”
The president is depicted as a classic entrepreneur who has spent his life constructing things — resorts, towers, developments — and acts as a buffer against so
cialism taking over America.
While the president’s coronavirus symptoms are in the early stage, if his condition becomes as serious as effects suffered by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ( who was in intensive care for three days before recovering), that is certainly cause for worry, D’Souza concluded. “I don’t think it’s possible to easily predict the impact of that on the election.”
”This has been a crazy year. Trump having the coronavirus is the latest twist in a year of twists and turns,” said the filmmaker.
“My big regret is not to be able to do normal festivities and premieres,” he added, citing the pandemic. Nevertheless, because of the anxiety surrounding this election, “this movie couldn’t be more timely.”