Facebook asks users to vote on future of voting system, hopes to revise governance policies

Facebook's proposed policy tweaks are about to have their day in the polls -- not that the social network's users have much of a chance of shooting them down. Facebook's current governance policies allow for a vote on proposed changes when more than 7,000 comments are registered -- but denying those changes requires a staggering 30 percent of the network's one billion active users. Ready for some quick math? That's 300 million negative votes -- more than twice as many than the total number of ballots cast in the 2012 US presidential election. Facebook's proposal cuts the voting system out of the site's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which it says will free it up to explore new ways to involve users in policy changes, such as the new "Ask our Chief Privacy Officer" feature.

The social network's site governance page also has a new article explaining some of its upcoming policy changes in layman's terms, which eases readers into the language it uses to describe how it shares information with affiliates, clarifies user content ownership and promises not to remove certain privacy controls. Facebook users happy with the old system have until December 10th to put America's voter turnout to shame, though their voices will probably be easier to hear after Facebook abandons its impotent democracy.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: Facebook (1), (2)