The People Have Spoken…to Facebook
Feb 18th, 2009 by Capsun
Mashable is reporting that Facebook has reverted to their previous Terms of Use, due to overwhelming demand of Facebook users. Mashable even shared the results of a poll asking readers if they wanted to revert to the old Terms or stay with the news ones. The result? 88% of those taking the Mashable poll were in favor of reverting back. Granted, this was not a scientific poll, but Facebook’s own poll showed 56% in favor of reverting, so it was a clear majority.
Maybe I should say the Tweeple have spoken! After all, there is a lot of chatter on Twitter about the new Facebook Terms of Use. And, at least in Hawaii, we the Tweeple have been able to use the Twitter service to get due attention from a huge corporation – yes, I’m talking about the AT&T incident. This arrangement will be temporary, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg points out. In fact, he even says, “Our next version will be a substantial revision from where we are now.” But in light of this blunder, Facebook has started a Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities group, to allow users to help craft future Terms.
So, I again pose my question from yesterday, What’s a Facebooker to do? First, let me say to Facebook that I appreciate their efforts to make this right. However, as I Tweeted last night, I stand by what I said yesterday: I will not be adding new content to Facebook going forward. I’m sorry guys, but you blew it with me. I’ll still link my Twitter updates to my Facebook status updates, but that’ about it. And I’ll keep all my previous content up, but won’t add anything new. Nope, instead, I’m going to put new content on Capsun’s Corner or Capsun’s Photo Blog, where I own all rights to the content, always have, and hopefully always will.
What should you do? Just like with money, you have to do what will let you sleep at night. If that’s taking down all your content and unlinking services, as Tammi did, then that’s fine. If, like some of my other friends, you aren’t fazed by the change at all, you can go ahead making no adjustments. I think many are in the middle like me and will figure out their own happy medium, and determine how much or how little they trust Facebook.
One final thought: Facebook and Twitter are known as Social Media. I think we’ve proven (again) that one thing people use social media for is to discuss (or complain about) things that are important to them and with which they disagree. In this case, Facebook happened to hit both. No matter how this situation is ultimately resolved, I think all social media services will look at this as an example of how not to do things.
Mahalo!
I didn’t keep up with all the twitter chatter but I’m sure it was off the charts. Privacy is an interesting topic – everyone assumes they have it, but I think anything on the internet is forever: whether we own the rights to it or not.
For example, this avatar I have is a picture of myself that I took. Other people however have taken this avatar and used it when talking about me on their blog. Even if I change my avatar or take the picture off websites I control, it’s already been copied. I certainly own the rights to that image and can go around asking people to take it down – but it’s a lot of effort to go through to protect one’s image.
“Social media” is the key phrase. If people don’t want their intimate tidbits to be public, then they shouldn’t post them. As you wrote, ou can use your own photoblog to post pics that you consider to be proprietary so that’s a good outlet. If I want privacy, the best solution is to not post.
Complaining about the FB TOS is like complaining about how bad a free meal is. “The food here is terrible and the potions are too small” is something I just don’t want to hear!
Yes what you decide to do and what makes you sleep better at night is how you should proceed. The best thing out of this I think is that FB listened. The users of social media sites have spoken and they are alive and well. Three Cheers!!!
I hope this little bit of education has made FB wiser, not sneakier.
And one of the important things I was told when I signed up for my first internet account was anything you put out there, is out there. You can’t watch every bit of the net all the time. You can’t know who copied it or who didn’t. If you don’t want it known, don’t share it.
Sid and Art: Good point about remembering that once it’s out there, it’s gone.
Thom: I applaud their listening, too.
quilly: I like your distinction between wiser and sneakier. If anything, I think they will be more PR-savvy.