The Raw Feed
Where technology and culture collide

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Facebook Thinks You're Stupid

Facebook quietly changed its terms of service agreement (TOS) recently. Bloggers freaked, triggering a public uproar that forced Facebook to revert back to the older version and come up with a better TOS agreement. All of this — the terms of service, the stealth editing thereof, the revocation and Zuzkerberg's explanation — demonstrates that Facebook suffers from a disease I like to call "People Is Stupid Syndrome." Facebook treats users like their puny pea brains can't handle either the basics of corporate legal protection or recognize when they're being talked down to or manipulated.

Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope thier mistake and all of the "outtings" that took place make Facebook (and Linkedin and all the other time wasting drabble that we seem to love) realize that the average tech savvy user is NOT ignorant. I read the new TOS when it was posted and was livid. I know they need a business model that will make the company money, but you (Facebook) are not going to blatantly steal my material for your gain. The potential PR damage that something like this can cause, has caused other companies (and products) to disappear.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 5:08:00 PM  
Anonymous MaddOphelia said...

Great post. I agree with Anonymous--as a user of social networking sites, I only post content I don't mind being co-opted by the parent company. I switched to Facebook from MySpace because of the MySpace policy allowing them to basically claim as theirs any content I created. If Facebook wants to do the same, I'll just post less--that's fewer clicks for them, and therefore fewer ad views, and potentially less revenue.

Thursday, February 19, 2009 1:57:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

But you forget the one unavoidable truth - people *is* stupid. Especially about legal and/or corporate issues. Case in point, the comment on the GTA4 story below this who doesn't get that controversy = free advertising. For a generation who may never see a real commercial thanks to Tivo and Pirate Bay they sure are pretty gullible when it comes to non-conventional advertising.

Thursday, February 19, 2009 4:14:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As if they wouldn't just steal it anyway if they wanted to? Patents for example are worthless if you can't afford to enforce them. What makes you think that corporate TOS has any real meaning? Or that there is anything worth stealing on facebook...

Saturday, February 28, 2009 4:58:00 PM  

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