A Primer on Facebook Privacy Changes: In Which Your Vote Probably Won’t Change Anything

Facebook proposes three big things: Some vaguely worded unknown changes to the Messages product, tweaks to how the site presents notifications and, most visibly, that the site can amend the current process of making privacy policy changes.

The last point is the one getting the attention. Currently, any proposed privacy changes are put out to the users at large on Facebook’s “site governance” page. From there, a post needs to surpass a certain number of user comments before being put to a vote on whether changes will be made. But here’s where the process breaks down. As the bylaw stands, Facebook requires 30 percent of its user base to vote to block any proposed site changes. A little perspective here: That’s 300 million people, or just under the total population of the United States. Getting that many people to do anything just doesn’t happen. It’s hard enough to get a fraction of that number to vote in a presidential election, much less a lightly publicized Facebook vote.