For now only in the USA
There are calls to prayer on Facebook again and again – and Facebook pages became particularly important for many communities during the corona pandemic. Facebook is now reacting to this and testing a function for prayers.
Bonn – 23.04.2021
Facebook is testing a new posting format that users can use to ask each other for their prayers. A spokeswoman for the company confirmed on Friday to kathisch.de US press reports about the new feature. “The feature is currently only being tested in the US, a test outside the US is currently not planned,” said the spokeswoman.
According to a report by the “Religion News Service” (RNS) on Wednesday, the feature is being tested with selected US users. Administrators of Facebook groups must activate the function so that members can post prayer requests. By clicking on a button labeled “Pray”, others can support the prayer request. As with the usual posting formats, public and private replies as well as selected reactions with emojis should also be possible.
High activity on Facebook during Easter and Passover
The head of the “Public Religion Research Institute” polling institute, Robert Jones, had already published a screenshot on Twitter last week showing information from Facebook about the new function. It says: “We’re introducing ‘Prayer Posts’ – you can allow group members to ask for and respond to prayers in a post. You can manage ‘Prayer Request posts’ in the group settings and set who can create them.”
According to Facebook, the idea for the new function came about in the wake of the corona pandemic. 2020 was the week in April that included both Easter and Passover Facebook’s annual review the week with the highest volume of video calls via Facebook Messenger and for live streams from religious and spiritual Facebook fan pages. “Our mission to empower people to build a community extends to the largest community in the world: the community of believers,” said Nona Jones, director of Facebook’s Global Faith Partnerships. The pastor found in her own work how stressful the Covid crisis is for religious communities. “So we’re committed to finding ways to develop the tools that will help people connect with hope on Facebook,” Jones told RNS. (fxn)
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