'Town Hall' is here, but don't expect to start DMing with Trump

You can send him a nice letter, though.
 By 
Marissa Wenzke
 on 
'Town Hall' is here, but don't expect to start  DMing with Trump
Mark Zuckerberg has gotten better at recognizing the political impact of Facebook. But the platform's new "Townhall Feature" has a bit of a slow start. Credit: Eric Risberg/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Thanks to a pretty cool new feature on Facebook, you can now send direct messages to your elected representatives. Just go to your "Settings" tab and enter your address to see a list of your reps and policymakers at the highest levels—including the vice president and president. And start chatting away.

But even though we're sure you've got plenty of things to message Donald Trump about, you're going to have to wait on that.

Many politicians have jumped on board with the new feature, but shooting off a DM to Trump himself is not an option. That was discovered and pointed out by ProPublica on Monday, the same day the new feature launched.

Snail mail and a call to his official office line are the only listed ways you can get a hold of POTUS. The inability to DM with a president so endlessly devoted to social media, his tweets flowing out with a fiery frequency while actual press conferences lag behind, seems a little strange. But is it really unusual given how new this feature is?

The truth is, a lot of reps don't have it turned on, either. When we plugged in a Los Angeles area address, we were shown the appropriate California state assembly member, state senator, state lieutenant governor, state governor, House representative, U.S. senators, vice president and president.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

But of these nine politicians, only two were available via direct Facebook messages—U.S. Representative Karen Bass and California State Senator Holly Mitchell.

Meanwhile, five politicians, including Trump, had only their phone numbers and mailing address listed. VP Mike Pence had the least amount of contact information listed, with just his mailing address shown.

With time, Facebook plans to add missing phone numbers or emails taken from sources like politicians' official sites, the company told TechCrunch. But it sounds like American policymakers are primarily responsible for getting their own info up there. And perhaps more politicians will also get onboard with direct messaging as things move forward -- an option they have to turn on themselves, as a Facebook rep has told us.

For now, though, you can keep sending your letters and making your phone calls. And maybe this no DMing thing is a blessing in disguise with Trump. After all, you've seen his Twitter account.

Mashable Image
Marissa Wenzke

Marissa is a real-time news intern at the LA office. She has a bachelor's degree in political science from UC Santa Barbara and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. She's a free spirit.

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