There's an 'I voted' button on Facebook for the general election

Facebook is introducing an "I voted" button for the general election.

People using the site tomorrow will see a 'megaphone' message at the top of their newsfeed, which if they are eligible to vote will highlight their status as a voter without specifying who they are voting or have voted for.

Such a button was used in the last three US presidential elections, the EU parliamentary election, the Scottish referendum and in India - the world's largest democracy - where the feature reached 31million people.

A study in 2012 suggested that 300,000 people had voted in the US presidential election that year because they saw that their friends had too on Facebook, so the implications of Facebook's button are potentially massive.

Elizabeth Linder, politics and government specialist for Facebook, said: "Politics is huge on Facebook, and with over 52 million interactions related to the general election already this year, we fully expect it to be the most discussed topic in the UK in 2015. That's why we're rolling out the 'I'm a Voter' button ahead of polling day – to give people all over the UK to chance to share they they're taking part with friends and family – and encourage others to do the same."

More: [The most-liked party leader among young people is not Ed Miliband]1