Facebook Gets Its New TOS, But How Many Users Really Cared?
This story was written by Tameka Kee.
The results from Facebook's Terms of Service vote are in, and not surprisingly, members voted for the new, crowd-sourced guidelines over the old ones. Just over 650,000 people voted, with 74 percent choosing the new terms; Facebook says that once the auditors confirm the stats it will adopt the new Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR) documents.
That's pretty gracious, considering that the initial terms of the vote said at least 30 percent of users had to participate for it to be valid. While 650,000+ voters may seem like a critical mass, it's only about 3 percent of Facebook's 200 million-strong user base. It's also relatively anti-climactic, given the very public back-and-forth on the TOS (which covered details like how long Facebook could keep user's dataparticularly if they closed an account), and the comparisons to the major backlash it suffered during the bungled rollout of Beacon.
Still, the fact that Facebook is honoring the members that actually voted (I must admit that I didn't vote), and agreeing to hold town-hall style discussions in the future, shows that the social network understands how vital it is to least give members the option of speaking up in advance of major changes.
Photo Credit: pshab
By Tameka Kee