Facebook has always been at the forefront of triggering user agitation over whatever it does, it almost seems a habit. Whether it was beacon or the recent February Fiasco over its Terms and Conditions. WATBlog had reviewed what transpired on the Internet from the time FB announced the new terms to it revoking it following the social media fury it had to bear.
A couple of weeks after revoking the said terms, Facebook announced a new set of documents which FB users would vote on for it to be implemented (it wasn’t as simple as that, but we will take it so for now).
In the announcement, Mark Zuckerberg said – Core to Facebook Principals would be notifying the Facebook community to any changes in policy the site was about to make. It would then allow a period of time for Facebook users to comment. Zuckerberg says if comments or interest in the change reached a certain threshold then the change would be voted on by the community. (Source)
The threshold in question was kept at 30% of all Facebook users. So basically if 30% of Facebook’s 200 million users voted, then the change would be implemented. The documents were then introduced on April 1th for people to vote and the poll continued till April 23rd. And at the end of it all, Facebook pulled in around 600,000 votes – which is a tenth of the 30% figure they wanted to vote. In basic – the poll didn’t quite measure up.
Although 74% of the users that voted approved of the changes (including me) and I guess Facebook is now going ahead with the new documents after all.
“We’d hoped to have a bigger turnout for this inaugural vote, but it is important to keep in mind that this vote was a first for users just like it was a first for Facebook,” said general counsel, Ted Ullyot. Clearly Facebook doesn’t seem bothered about the lack of votes. much like most of our politicians. And another debate is now simmering on that front.
Readwriteweb in its analysis of the vote calls it a farce, based on Privacy International’s opinion which claimed the entire excercise was a “publicity stunt and a massive confidence trick on its 200 million users.”
Quoting Privacy International:
“While we support the concept of user participation, the idea of establishing a thirty percent participation threshold is a complete joke. It will never be reached, and Facebook knows it. Earlier this year the figure had been set at 25 percent, and it was edged up because of concerns that users might actually succeed in changing the terms and conditions,” Privacy International’s Director, Simon Davies claimed in a statement Friday.
So while Zuckerberg thinks the move was a landmark in how site’s will define and change user policy, it is still muddled in skepticism and doubt.
