From April 16 through 23, 2009 the 200 million Facebook users have a chance to vote on their own governance, but the new governance will only be adopted if 30% of the Facebooks friends vote. This vote follows a virtual town hall meeting that allowed comments on the proposed governance terms. It seems to make sense that the users should have some control over their own social networking activities.

Friends Complain

Hundreds of thousands Facebook friends sent emails complaining about a new privacy policy in September 2006, and as a result Facebook decided not to adopt the new privacy policy. Earlier this year Facebook decided to retain all items posted forever, and another ground swell of opposition stopped these changes. These messages indicate a sense of ownership that Facebook users have about Facebook, which led Facebook to promise to be more transparent, and as a result the right to vote on governance.

All Facebook Users Should Review the Proposed Governance

Since few individuals ever bother to read terms of use, privacy policies, or click agreements, this is a novel opportunity for Web 2.0 to encourage the users to establish policies. This may have an impact on future policies for the Internet, so stay tuned for the election results.
 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *