Contentinople - Erin Barker - News Bits: Facebook Relents on Terms of Service

Written by Erin Barker

Wednesday, February 18. 2009 at 12:00 PM EST 1 comment

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Everybody relax! Facebook 's terms of service are back to normal. For now.

Facebook users have been revolting, ever since the company made changes to its terms of service that implied, among other things, that Facebook could retain users' content even if they deleted their accounts.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg last night agreed to revert back to Facebook's old TOS until it can come up with a new one "written clearly in language everyone can understand." (Read: Yeah, yeah, we'll fix it... morons...)

In a blog posted last night, Zuckerberg promised that Facebook users will have a lot of input into the new TOS, which will be completed in a few weeks, and invited them to join the Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities group to contribute.

"More than 175 million people use Facebook. If it were a country, it would be the sixth most populated country in the world," modest Zuckerberg writes. "Our terms aren't just a document that protect [sic] our rights; it's the governing document for how the service is used by everyone across the world." Everyone!

In other news:

Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) today reported fourth-quarter results that surpassed analyst expectations, but its subscriber numbers don't bode well for the future. Comcast lost 233,000 basic subscribers, compared to the 150,000 that Wall Street expected the company to lose. The company also added 247,000 high-priced digital subs, which is less than half of what analysts had expected the company to add. And Comcast picked up 184,000 high-speed data subscribers, compared to the expected 250,000.

CFO Michael Angelakis didn't provide the company's usual full-year forecast, saying, "There's a bit less visibility in the business than usual."

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is just two ads into its new "Rookies" series, in which kids declare their PC pride, but reviewers are divided on their effectiveness. The first ad, which featured four (and a half)-year-old Kylie emailing a picture of her fish to her parents, debuted during the Grammys; the more recent ad features seven-year-old Alexa putting together a panorama of pictures of her fort. (Microsoft! So easy a kid can do it!)

So far, reviews are mixed:

The Microsoft Watch Blog's Joe Wilcox dislikes the second ad, explaining that because Alexa is a whole seven years old, "greater should be expectations from her." [Ed. note: OK, Yoda.]
Whereas Apple Blog's Tom Reestman argues against the whole concept: "When you’re 4.5 or 7 years old you have no idea what the phrase 'I’m a PC' is supposed to mean." Clearly you need to be more mature to comprehend the full weight of the phrase.

Tags: Advertising, Apple, Business, Facebook, Microsoft, Social Networks

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That was fast!
Pete Baldwin
Rank: Sultan
Wednesday February 18, 2009 4:46:02 PM

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Someone on FB posted about this pending move yesterday, threatening action, and today FB's already backpedaling. Good. I'd like to know who's idea it was and what the reasons were behind it. Unprecedented, explosive growth wasn't enough for them I guess?! They wanted MORE. lol.

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