Be Heard is powered by Unum ID, a state-of-the-art blockchain identity platform. Unum ID lets Be Heard users verify their identities to stand out from bots. Your representatives will know for sure that you're a verified constituent, not a foreign agent!
Try it out by adding your verified signature to the #SecureOurDemocracy petition above. As our official mascot George Washington says, Unum ID is the app Putin doesn't want you to have!
Be Heard lets you send official messages to your representatives at all levels of government. We have chatbots, a mobile app, a Chrome extension, and an embeddable widget.
(For information about how your representatives receive your message, please see our FAQ.)
These Facebook Messenger bots make it easy and fun to send messages to representatives (and candidates!). Click the pictures or names below to try them out.
The Be Heard mobile app literally puts your representatives in the palm of your hand. You send the message; we deliver it to their official inboxes.
Send official messages to your representatives directly from Facebook, Twitter, and news sites.
The Be Heard Chrome extension integrates with Facebook and Twitter so you can turn your posts and tweets into official messages to your representatives. It's a seamless integration that allows you to speak your mind to your friends, followers, and representatives at the same time. Be Heard transforms social media from an echo chamber into a public forum.
Be Heard also integrates with millions of articles across 14 major U.S. news sites. Just like with the Facebook and Twitter integrations, you can contact your representatives without leaving the page. After installing the Chrome extension, just look for Be Heard at the end of articles:
Are you a website owner? You can embed a Be Heard widget like this one on your own site with a single line of code:
We deliver the message to your representatives' official systems. The mode of delivery varies by the type of representative, but they receive your message as if you contacted them directly through their website or another official channel.
For a message sent using our widget at the end of a news article, we include a link to that article at the beginning of the message so your representatives have the appropriate context. When you send a message with the mobile app, Chrome extension or widget, we show you exactly how your message will appear to your representatives.
Soon, we will also send you an email receipt for each message. This receipt will include information about how your message appears to your representatives.
No. Be Heard provides functionality on top of those platforms but is not affiliated with them in any way. Those platforms have no access to the personal information you provide through Be Heard.
We are committed to and passionate about data privacy. Our goal is to store as little information as possible. The only personal data we collect is what we explicitly ask for when you create your account, and we use this to send messages to representatives on your behalf and communicate with you. You can read more about this in our privacy policy and terms of service.
No. Representatives receive your messages even if they have never heard of Be Heard, and they can respond to you by email.
Yes. If you tag representatives on social media, they will likely never read what you write. When you post with Be Heard on social media, we send the text of the post as an official message to your representatives. They will receive it in their existing systems, just like if you filled out the contact forms on their websites.
Be Heard is different in at least two crucial ways:
It meets people where they already talk about politics: on social media and news sites. Other platforms (e.g. Countable, 5 Calls, and Brigade) are standalone, but Be Heard integrates with what people already use. Nearly half of Americans post about politics on social media.
It will allow every user to verify their identity to prove they are a constituent (this feature is coming soon), making representatives far more likely to pay attention to their messages. Even the most prominent civic engagement tools (e.g. ResistBot, Democracy.io, and Change.org) have no identity verification, making it all too easy to spam representatives.
Identity fraud is wreaking havoc on our democracy. Fake accounts on social media are fueling misinformation campaigns both foreign and domestic, making it easier than ever to meddle in our politics. Fake messages are flooding representatives and federal agencies, drowning out the opinions of real Americans. For example, the FCC recevied 21.7 million public comments about net neutrality in 2017, but Pew Research found that 94% of them were fake or duplicate. The Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into this last December.
Be Heard is committed to stopping bots, lobbyists, spammers, and foreign agents from drowning out the voices of real people like you.
Like the country we call home, Be Heard is of the people, by the people, and for the people. Here, we pay tribute to some of the many people who've helped make Be Heard possible.
The signers of the document are below contributed at least $10 to our crowdfunding campaign. The more they contributed, the larger their name is. Colton Mallet, who contributed the largest amount, is our John Hancock!
We are extremely grateful to all of our crowdfunders, supporters, and fans. Thank you all!