Facebook Opens Terms Of Service To User Comment

Facebook is trying its hand at democracy after CEO Mark Zuckerberg told users that the social networking site plans to allow its members to comment and vote on privacy issues included in its newly updated terms of service.

Over the next few weeks, users will have the opportunity to review, comment and ultimately vote on two documents, the Facebook Principles, a set of values that serves as a framework for the development of the service, as well as the recently drafted Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which replaces the existing terms of service, developer terms of service and the facebook advertising terms and conditions. Facebook's privacy policy will also be updated and open for user debate in the months to come.

During a press conference Thursday, Zuckerberg said that the proposed move came in response to strong criticism from its members earlier this month regarding user privacy issues after the company changed its terms of service to claim sole ownership of the user content. The revamped policy changes elicited online protests from tens of thousands of the site's 175 million members, who claimed that control of the private information posted to the site belonged in the hands of the users.

Following the firestorm of criticism, Facebook subsequently reverted to its previous terms of service, and embarked on redrafting the policy.

Now, in an effort to create more transparency, Zuckerberg said that Facebook will recreate its governing documents and subject them to user scrutiny before they become finalized.

"We decided we needed to do things differently and so we're going to develop new policies that will govern our system from the ground up in an open and transparent way," Zuckerberg said in blog post.

"Companies like ours need to develop new models of governance," Zuckerberg added in a statement. "Rather than simply reissue a new Terms of Use, the changes [that we announced Thursday] are designed to open up Facebook so that users can participate meaningfully in our policies and our future."

Unlike previous versions of the TOS, Facebook's newly proposed Statement of Rights and Responsibilities will include guarantees that users, not Facebook, own the content they share on the site, and that Facebook's permission to use the content ends when users either decide to delete the content or terminate their accounts.

The documents include further amendments that ensure that users be given certain notifications, as well as an opportunity to provide comment, and in certain cases, the authority to approve the site's governing services through a vote.

To garner participation, Facebook will hold a series of online Town Hall meetings in which users can provide further comment on privacy issues regarding content ownership. For the next 30 days, users will be able to join two online groups dedicated to the pending drafts of the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and the Facebook Principles. Facebook will then review the comments for possible inclusion in the policies once the comment period closes March 29.

Following the town halls, users active as of Feb. 25 will then have the opportunity to vote on both documents. The result of the vote will be made public and be binding if more than 30 percent of all active registered users vote.

In addition, Facebook is in the process of instituting a user council to invoke grassroots policy discussion and further connect the social networking site with its members. Initially, the council will be comprised of site members who provide "the most insightful and constructive comments on the draft documents," Zuckerberg said.