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The Conversation is covering #BBCDebate live on WhatsApp and Twitter

Join us, wherever you are.

The BBC is hosting “The Great Debate” about the UK’s membership of the EU on Tuesday, June 21 at 8pm (BST). The debate will feature politicians backing the Remain and Leave camps, including the new London mayor Sadiq Khan and his predecessor Boris Johnson. It will be held in front of an audience of 13,500 people and televised live on BBC One. The Great Debate will be one of the last opportunities for both camps to get their message across to voters before the referendum on June 23.

Our coverage of the EU referendum has provided clear, explanatory information, written by academics and experts. We will be bringing the same ethos to our live coverage of the debate on two platforms: WhatsApp and Twitter.

WhatsApp

For the last two weeks, we’ve been sending the most relevant, timely information on the referendum to users who have signed up to receive our updates on WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging app. WhatsApp is an ideal platform for our readers to communicate directly with us. So, during The Great Debate, we are inviting readers to message us their questions on WhatsApp. A group of our editors will be at hand to answer them live.

Questions that you send us will not be seen by anyone apart from our editors. And answers will be sent only to you. So, if you’re signed up to our WhatsApp updates, you don’t have to worry about getting a deluge of messages from us – just personalised answers to your own questions.

How to join

If you’ve already signed up to our WhatsApp update, you don’t have to do anything. If you haven’t signed up yet, you’ll need to do so before 7pm BST on June 21 to ensure you can send us your questions.

WhatsApp has its own simple guide to getting started but here’s the gist.

First, you’ll need to download WhatsApp to your phone. It’s a free download for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

Then add us to your phone’s contact list. The number you will need to add is: +44 7393 416063.

Finally, open WhatsApp and send “Join” to that number. We’ll then add you to our list for updates. If you’d like to stop receiving updates send “Stop”.

Note that the number won’t be monitored – calls and regular text messages won’t come through to it. If you run into any trouble, email Ally.

Twitter

Our live coverage on Twitter will attempt to put both camps’ arguments and counter-arguments to the test and in a greater context, based on actual evidence and academic expertise. We will do so by leveraging the depth of our content as well as featuring on-the-spot reactions from academics.

Expect lots of debunking, graphs and political analysis by actual experts.

To follow our live coverage on Twitter, follow us at @ConversationUK.

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