Facebook seeks user input on policies
NEW YORK -- Is Facebook a democracy or a business? Facebook is giving its 175 million-plus members an unprecedented voice in helping dictate the social networking giant's future governing direction. They may even get to vote on those policies.
Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement Thursday in the aftermath of last week's firestorm over controversial changes to Facebook's terms of use agreement.
"The purpose of Facebook is to make the world more open and transparent by giving people the power to share information," Zuckerberg said in a conference call with reporters. "We really took last week as a strong signal about how people cared about Facebook and wanted to be involved in helping to govern it."
To allow that to happen, members will get to comment — and possibly vote — on any proposed changes to a set of "Facebook Principles" and a separate "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, both issued Thursday. The company will hold virtual Town Halls to let users chime in with feedback; they'll have until March 29 to do so. If need be, Facebook will put any subsequent changes up to a vote that will be binding if more than 30% of active registered members cast a ballot.
Facebook also said it would establish a user council to help draft documents, consisting of people who provide the most "insightful and constructive" comments.
As one of the tenets addressed in the documents unveiled Thursday, Facebook says, "People should own their information" and "have the freedom to share it with anyone they want and take it with them anywhere they want, including removing it from the Facebook Service." Concern over who owned information and what could be done with it was at core of the heat Facebook took from bloggers, pundits and members last week.
"We do not own user data...we never really intended to give that impression and feel very bad that we did," Zuckerberg told reporters.
In a blog post announcing the new procedures to its members, Zuckerberg conceded that "the conventional business practives around a Terms of Use document are just too restrictive."
