Facebook is looking to widen its reach to religious groups by introducing a new feature called "prayer posts" on the social media platform. The Mark Zuckerberg-founded tech giant is currently testing out the feature, which lets users post prayer requests and click on a "pray" button to let others know that they have prayed for their respective requests.
According to Faithwire, Robert P. Jones, founder and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) was one of the first people to try out the feature. Jones was surprised to find the new feature pop up on his Facebook account.
He went on to Twitter to share a screenshot of the prompt, which read, "You may enable group members to ask for and respond to prayers in a post. You can manage Prayer Request post and who can create them in Group Settings." PRRI's Jones mused, "Wondering what FB algorithm thinks it knows about me?"
So I just had this "Introducing Prayer Posts" pop up as a new fb feature on my profile. Anyone else seeing this? Wondering what fb algorithm thinks it knows about me? pic.twitter.com/TnP1reKDGR
"” Robert P. Jones (@robertpjones) April 14, 2021
The answer came through Facebook's head of Global Faith Partnerships Nona Jones, who explained that the prayer posts feature was specifically designed to help the faith community come together.
Facebook's Jones, who leads Gainesville's Open Door Ministries with her husband Pastor Timothy Jones Sr., explained that the idea for the new prayer posts feature came about from the idea of how users have connected through Facebook while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic's lockdowns and restrictions.
"Our mission to give people the power to build community extends to the world's largest community; the faith community," Nona told Religion News. "As a local church pastor with my husband, I know very well how disruptive the last year has been for people of faith and the houses of worship that serve them."
"This is why we are committed to finding ways to build the tools that help people connect to hope on Facebook," the Facebook rep added. The tech giant said that the new prayer posts feature is being tested within a subset of groups in the U.S. for now, but did not elaborate on the criteria to be one of those who are able to participate in the test run.
Facebook's new prayer posts feature, which is geared towards the faith community, will let group administors allow members to use the feature, which they can then use to post prayer requests in the group. Other members can then click the "pray" button to let the prayer requester know that the individual had prayed for them. Users can also react, comment, or send a private message to the poster.
The test run of Facebook's new prayer posts feature is one of the tech giant's projects that cater to the faith community. Another is its #MonthForGood campaign, which is a campaign during the observance of the Muslims' Ramadan.
The move comes after backlash over Facebook was accused of censoring conservatives, specifically former President Donald Trump and his supporters. The tech giant claimed, however, that "the right is better at connecting with people on a visceral level," as reported by Politico.
