Facebook Controversy- Opera Mini FanPage Deleted; Aftereffect of Opera Browser 9.5 release?
I am a BIG fan of Opera Mini and have accessed to more than 2,000 hours of internet on my mobile. Even, I created an Opera Mini Fanpage on Facebook & used to send regular updates for the same which had 130 fans till the last time I went through the page. But, today morning when I logged onto my Facebook account I got a Warning Notice as follows:-
I noticed that the Opera Mini Fanpage that I created (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Opera-Mini/6085213943) has been deleted & found myself as a fan of Opera Browser. Exploring through the Facebook Terms & Conditions, it says:-
Facebook does not review Facebook Pages to determine if they were created by an appropriate party, and is not responsible for any unauthorized Facebook Pages that may appear on the Site. If there is any dispute as to whether a Facebook Page has been created or is being maintained by an authorized representative of the individual or entity who is the subject of that Facebook Page, then Facebook shall have sole right, but is not obligated, to resolve such dispute as it determines is appropriate in its sole discretion. Such resolution may include, without limitation, deleting or disabling access to Facebook Pages or any portion thereof at any time without notice.
But, it left me wondering the reasons for deletion of the Fanpage. I tell you how:-
Please have a look at the deleted Fanpage, retrieved from Google cache.
An Opera Mini Engineer, wrote on the wall asking for the admin of the Fanpage:-
I replied to him regarding the same, check the screenshot below:-
Not only this, I offered him Admin privileges of the Fanpage, but he denied.
Now, can you figure out the reason for deletion of the Fanpage? I still can’t!
Moreover, I found the same members on a newly created Opera Mini Fanpage with only 5 fans till this post has been written.
This is not for the first time. Previously, Facebook banned users for creating a branded Fanpage. I am still pondering that Social Media is – “For the People, By the People” where the control is distributed. 130 may look a small figure in my case, but deleting a Fanpage, just to have control in your hands is not even good for the brand. What if some fan being pissed-off by this action, creates a group like “Opera Mini sucks“?
Any Facebook/Opera Mini folk listening?
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This is quite bizarre!
thanx wasting my 30 mins cos after reading this article i went on to find the truth as said in your first pic of this post…i repeat facebook pages are created for commercial,political or charitable purpose…..when they say commercial they do not mean a fan page they mean the owner of a particular business…….and when u created the opera page u must have clicked the button that saya’create a page for my business’ so r u the owner of the opera mini….bcos when u said that u sent an invitation to lawrence for authorization that means u yourself were aware that u violated a terms of service…..cos violation means violation and you cant expect a company or sns site to be lenient to you……suppose if i create a page on reliance industries then wont the people feel betrayed when they come to know that it is not from the said company cos it was supposed to be a business page…..for fan page a person can create groups not business page………in this case both opera and facebook where right bcos the terms of service really mentions that……………read this thoroughly if u still need answers……..http://www.facebook.com/terms.php…………..and do remember a crime is a crime whether u steal a necklace and return it to the owner……..hope i was not very harsh……
I think the whole definition of a ‘fan page’ is quite sticky. It connotes a page that can be created by a fan and also a fan can be part of the page.
@Raghav,
I appreciate your effort of taking off 30 min out of your busy schedule to dig more information on the same issue. I agree that the TOS says – “You may not set up a Facebook Page on behalf of another individual or entity unless you are authorized to do so. This includes fan Facebook Pages, as well as Facebook Pages to support or criticize another individual or entity.”
But, I agree with what Harshil said that the term “Fanpage” is quite confusing. What if the page does not exists!
Also, Facebook TOS says that- “Facebook does not review Facebook Pages to determine if they were created by an appropriate party, and is not responsible for any unauthorized Facebook Pages that may appear on the Site. If there is any dispute as to whether a Facebook Page has been created or is being maintained by an authorized representative of the individual or entity who is the subject of that Facebook Page, then Facebook shall have sole right, but is not obligated, to resolve such dispute as it determines is appropriate in its sole discretion.”
In my case, I took the initiative to transfer the admin privilege. Also, I sent an update to all fans that if someone wants to be an admin respond back. But, didn’t get any reply.
Also, not only the page got deleted, I found myself a fan of Opera Browser (which I am not, I am a fan of Firefox). What’s your say on this? Also, there are a lot of fake profiles (mostly celebrities) what about them?
This has not happened for the first time. Previously too users got banned for creating branded pages (refer to the link in the post).
Atlast but not the least, I apologize if you think I wasted your precious 30 min (actually 35, coz reading this will take another 5 min :p)
I think the whole point of fanpages is to show your appreciation and solidarity as a fanboy.. I don’t even understand how someone creating a fanpage disgruntles users like raghav suggested…
I think more than Rupesh or Faceook it is Opera who have tarnished their PR (no not pagerank).. mean such instances can be handled so well to promote your brand.. in my opinion each company should review it’s unnoficial fan pages (those that they don’t own) and take action based on the content.. if it is in support of the product or community (which might be the case most of the time) then it should take the opportunity to build on tht community by showing its solidarity.. think of the PR boost it can give to the brand…
and of course those who flame the product it can be dealt with more harshly… I think the whole concept of social networking and social media is killed by such restrictions.. why give the such features if this is the case..
@maneesh these were not fanpages but brand or company pages….suppose if tommorrow sum1 creates page on sequoia capital then wouldn’t people flock to that page taking it as page created by the company even though that page mentions fan pages……..for show of appreciation groups can be made….
@rupesh well rupesh i m not that busy person as u are …..and u have to think from the company’s viewpoint cos not every page creator is like you who could offer control to others……so they have to be strict ………well why not u make a group to show ur appreciation…….one thing that others are not understanding these pages are never said to be fan pages…cos they are either brand pages or company pages…..so when sum1 create a page by name microsoft xp(fan page)…..they r depicting to be the owner of that brand or company…..so do u think it would be wise or correct…..entrepreneurs like watblog should support brand pages cos it gives free social marketing to the company…and who would like to loose control of it …and btw i checked ur blog its design is damn good…making such blogs on blogspot takes a lot of time….hope i could learn few lessons on blog making from you in future…….cya
@ Rupesh – Have you tried to join that group again? I was kicked out from Opera Mini fan group as well and found myself from Opera Browser fan group??? Also my comment on wall was gone. I just joined to that group again in order to test what will happen in near future.
Hi Rupesh,
This is Lawrence Eng (quoted above).
I’m not in the department at Opera that handles our Facebook presence, but I’ve helped some of my colleagues with that. Over the last several months, we have been working on creating our official Opera fan page(s) on Facebook. Since Facebook does not check who creates fan pages, several unofficial Opera-related fan pages have been created in the past, and we’ve sent messages to the page admins asking if those pages could be removed.
In the process of setting up our new pages recently, some of my colleagues have been in contact with Facebook, and should have been in contact with you as well, but apparently that didn’t happen. I apologize on their behalf. I’m not entirely sure, but I believe that the goal was to have Opera Mini fans on your page transferred over to an official “Opera Mini” page that was recently created (and not the Opera Browser page), effectly transferring admin privileges over to Opera. I’m not sure, but I believe Facebook made an error there, which we will work to rectify.
The Facebook terms of service are pretty straightforward in terms of who is supposed to create and maintain “Fan pages”, but I also agree that they are bit confusingly named, which may have led to some misunderstandings. Facebook also allows anyone to create Groups on any topic, and Opera users have and are certainly free to create Opera-related groups.
Anyhow, we should have contacted you about our new page superceding yours, and we apologize again for failing to do that. Let me thank you personally for your support of Opera and taking the initiative to spread the word about Opera Mini.
Sincerely,
Lawrence
@ Raghav…
Have you ever heard of “Parking Pages”? Just in case you are unaware, allow me to educate you a little. Suppose, you just got a tip that the team of WAT is going to come up with a new browser called WATBrowser. Now, it is natural that WAT shall want to put up their official website on http://www.watbrowser.com but you might be too far sighted and bought off the URL right away. You just posted a link on that page giving out your contact information and a lot of google ads. Now, this page that you have created but have no real use of, is called a “Parking Page”.
Why would you use such a tactic, you might ask. Today, how much does it normally cost for buying an URL? Maximum $10, I think. But, since it hurts WAT’s brand value for not being able to host our official website on watbrowser.com, WAT would be eager to buy out the URL from you at a premium price, in turn making you a handsome profit. This strategy is used every where in the world and has become very popular among the trend gazers to earn fast bucks.
Now, I would like to attract your attention to one of the channels on YouTube (MTV Roadies). This particular page had been created on March 16, 2007, and the last login date is around 1 year ago. Now, don’t you think that this channel gives an impression of being created by MTV themselves? But had that been the case, why haven’t they still populated the page with videos? You think they don’t have the time? Or do you think despite thinking about such a wonderful marketing strategy, they are too lazy to work on it? Open your eyes, my boy…this is also one of such parking pages. The owner is just biding his time when MTV shall realize the importance of Youtube’s viral nature and shall want to create a channel for their Roadies show.
Now, I don’t say that Rupesh is also one such opportunist. But, I still feel it is wrong to even ask Rupesh to handover the fan page because it was him who created it. If the guys at Opera or even Facebook had a problem, they should have rather made it compulsory for the fan page owners to explicitly specify whether a page is created by a fan or is a branded page. Moreover, they should also have properly categorized the 2 sections and probably also allowed users to search fan pages with 2 categories, the ones created by fans, or the brands themselves!
@ Lawrence…
How do you think a company gets the right to even think of merging all fan pages that are about a single brand, let alone even touch it?
Hi Shayon,
I’m not sure if I fully understand your question, but in this particular case “Fan Page” has a very specific meaning on Facebook. Even though they are called “Fan pages”, they are supposed to be owned and maintained by official representatives of the company in question. Unofficial fan-created “Groups” on Facebook, however, can be made and maintained by anyone, and we’re more than happy that several Opera fans have done just that.
@shayon thanx 4 explaining parking pages in detail though its another thing that i already know much about it……..as far as honouring the ip’s and terms of service goes i do not feel that a whole system should be broken to accomdate one page…….i m still wondering why u guys think its unethical cos u all r entrepreneurs and honouring a protocol or terms of service should be the biggest priority even though the work u do is for some good purpose…….it is like offending a law just because u think its not capable or unethical at work………we live in society and have to follow some rules…….cos in this society rule breakers are punished badly rather than honouring them like bhagat singh….i hope u get my point……
Raghav is right, Facebook terms of use are actually quite clear in this case:
“Facebook Pages are special profiles used solely for commercial, political, or charitable purposes. You may not set up a Facebook Page on behalf of another individual or entity unless you are authorized to do so. This includes fan Facebook Pages, as well as Facebook Pages to support or criticize another individual or entity.”
Company is in this case an entity, so only representative of enitity is the one who have the right to establish fan Facebook Pages in name of the company. Facebook have every right to do what they want if someone break those terms of use.
But what comes to fan pages in general, then it’s no so easy. If I for example decide to open my own server for Opera Mini fan group, then I also can define my own rules. There are of course national laws and international copyright laws and trademarks that people should respect. Therefore it probably would be not okay if I start selling or distributing something in names of Opera Mini on that server.
So, now that I have fully understood what is going on in here I have to read through MyOpera terms of use and find out if it’s okay to have Opera Mini fan pages administrated by other than Opera Software represtatives.
@ Lawrence – Please have a look at http://my.opera.com/opera.mini/about/ and let me know if those fan pages violate MyOpera rules.
this is pathetic…if so called fan pages are to be created only by the owners – thn why let any1 and evry1 create such pages in the first place…why not have some verification/authorisation built in.
and such filters are not in place – then are the users at fault ? the name itself is misleading – fan pages – now dont tell me they expect members to read TOS before doing anything on the site.
i think the way facebook and opera went about resolving this issue was outrageous….as a user id never go back to such a service.
Well, there can be ‘opera fans’ and ‘Opera fans’
If verification would be asked, then ‘opera fans’ would start to question why such a verification would be needed. And of course Web site owner can expect people to read terms of use. People should not start thinking that if most of the Web sites does not have so strict rules, then all of them would be similar.
@ lawrence – You mean to say you put all the authorization after the “fan page” is created?
Doesn’t it sound a bit “Propietory”?
Why not make that practice in the first place as abhishek suggested…and do you really go through the content of “fan pages” b4 taking the decision of deleting them?
@all,
The BIGGER question still remains unanswered i.e. How can Facebook add me as a Fan of Opera Browser without my will, intent or knowledge?
Also, you people might know or not that even a Facebook group can be converted into a Fanpage.
Also, when someone’s friendlist crosses the limit of 5,000 s/he can have a Fanpage & all the friends are added as fans automatically.
Being a friend does not mean being a fan??
I, again am a spectator of the same with MTV Mia’s fanpage:-
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mtvs-Mia-Uyeda/15422655100
Her profile:- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528353265 (damn sure some one is doing SMO & it is not real her)
For the concerns above, I tried to contact Facebook, but seems they are too busy.. or they think this is a very small issue to talk upon!
Hiding their face..!!
Who takes thirty minutes to read this small article?
Anyway your situation is quite odd and I hope it is soon remidied.