As someone who (1) strongly believes that people have a civil obligation to vote and (2) recognises that voter apathy is rife, I am encouraged that Facebook actively encouraged voter registration and voting.

I don’t think it is totally altruistic. I have no doubt that Facebook will use and apply the data collected by clicking the “I voted” buttons in their back-end profiling although I can’t yet imagine what for. However, Facebook has a reach of tens of millions of potential voters and seeking to actively engage them in civil society is a good thing.