The Silent Number

Posted: 2009-08-16

Since my blog post and accompanying video demanding that Facebook change the way they treat their users and personal data, i received a video response from someone by the name of Rudy Arnauts who has turned this into a grassroots campaign, Meeting With Mark, to set up a face-to-face meeting with Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. We're taking him up on his claims that Facebook is becoming more open, transparent, and democratic in how the site is governed. Of course, Facebook isn't the only offender, but it is probably the most prominent given it's popularity and reputation for this kind of abuse, so this may be a campaign for Facebook, but it could really have a ripple effect across the internet. Although Facebook is among the worst sites which actually exploit users for agreeing to their terms of service, most websites have very similar policies. In other words, just because they haven't done too much harm yet, doesn't mean they haven't reserved their right to. If you ask me, this meeting should be big, it should be streamed live, and there should be a live feed of viewers' comments.

From the channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MeetingwithMark

The issue of disabled accounts is widespread as you can see for yourself by searching for terms like "facebook disabled" on not only Google, but also microblogging sites like Twitter, Facebook's help site forums, and even Facebook itself where you'll find dozens of groups with thousands of members all calling out for this to end. People all have important contacts, business relations, and other communication that is lost with their accounts. On top of that, the common practice for big websites is to only offer users a big FAQ style site along with forums for users to help each other, but no real contact with the company: Facebook users are Facebook's customer support.

Once upon a time, i was a loyal Facebook user, but now i'm in this not just to wake up Facebook, but to change the way our information is handled by sites across the web. Facebook has had this coming for a long time. Users don't seem to get angry until it happens to them. We can't blame everyone on the internet for being ignorant about this sort of thing, so we should raise awareness about it, and try to change it. If you want to help, please spread the word, make a video response, whatever-- just get the word out!

P.S. Isn't it time for a competent open source competitor to enter the arena?... =]