Facebook seeks to drop votes on policy

Now that Facebook is being held increasingly accountable by federal privacy regulators, critics fear it is seeking to make itself less accountable to its users. The social network wants to eliminate the once-championed right of users to vote on changes to the company’s data use and governance policies, provoking a backlash from privacy advocates.

Nov 28 is the last day that users can comment on the proposed change. “Mark Zuckerberg peddles Facebook as one of greatest tools to bolster democracy and help elect a president and support revolutions, but the last place he wants to see a revolution is on its eavesdropping of users,” says Jeff Chester, president of the Center for Digital Democracy. The Center for Digital Democracy and the Electronic Privacy Information Center sent a joint letter to Mr Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, on Monday, urging him to withdraw the proposed changes. Several US senators, congressmen and commissioners with the Federal Trade Commission received copies of the letter. The advocates argue that the changes backtrack on previous commitments from Facebook to involve users in deciding on how the site is governed, and potentially violate agreements with US regulators that gave users more control over how their data are shared.