Facebook allows users to vote on terms of use

Facebook, a leading social networking website, is back in the news regarding 

their website's Terms of Use. In early February 2009 Facebook made a couple changes to their Terms and Use and after a large number of negative questions and comments about the changes they decided to return to their previous Terms of Use while they spent a little more thoughtful time resolving issues raised from end user feedback. 

 

Fast forward to today and Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg is posting another blog expressing he is "excited to see how much people care about Facebook and how willing they are to contribute to the process of governing the site." Being that Facebook's previous Terms of Use changed basically granted them the ability to store and use your content indefinitely, even after you deleted your account, I think using the word "care" is a bit of an over statement.  My assumption is that users wrote into Facebook more out of annoyance and privacy concerns than straight up caring. 

 

Despite a social hiccup from time-to-time, Facebook is an innovative company that is quick to change when change is needed. In today's blog post Zuckerberg invited users to comment and contribute on proposed changes to its Terms of User and shared how two new documents were published. First, the Facebook Principles document that outlines users rights and will serve as the guiding framework behind any policy considered or not considered by Facebook and second, is the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities document that will act as a replacement for the existing Terms of Use.

 

This is an unprecedented action that is almost as shocking as the changes outlined in the initial Terms of Use update. Makes me wonder if this was a strategic move on Facebook's part as an effort to generate as much buzz and public notice as possible surrounding their new "user input" concept. Coming out with news that annoys and concerns people generated a significant amount of public attention. Once the attention is there then announce your true concept to the world and not only receive exponentially more press about the updated news but you have trained people to be overly positive about the new concept because the initial changes were so disliked. Imagine asking your child to sweep out the garage then mow the lawn. Well, the child won't like the idea of that, but if you revoke that request and ask your child to only take out the trash, well heck, the child is happy to do so and is excited about the idea. Smart Facebook, very smart.