While everyone was filling out 25 random things about themselves, Facebook was quietly making changes to its Terms of Use on Feb. 4. Deleted was the provision that stated users could remove their content at any given time and prevent Facebook from using that content. Once this was discovered, many in the Facebook community protested loudly, outraged that Facebook had decided that it had the right to keep whatever a user had posted in the past, even if the user decided to delete his account.
It didn’t take long for Facebook to realize that users were unhappy with this change, and it reinstated the old policy. Many Facebook users are comfortable with sharing every detail of their waking lives with their friends, but draw the line when it comes to Facebook having control over their content. Given that Facebook would be nothing without its users, its administrators should be respectful of this feeling.
There are obvious downsides to Facebook being able own and use all content forever, but the potential benefits have been completely overlooked. If pictures or videos depicting violence or sexual abuse are posted to Facebook, the poster should not be allowed to get away with deleting the images and escaping prosecution. In 2006, a 13-year-old girl committed suicide after she was cyber-bullied by an ex-friend’s mother who created a fake MySpace profile. It would make sense that social networking sites should be able to retain these kinds of posts when a criminal matter is involved, even if the content is deleted.
Ultimately, the lesson that needs to be learned from Facebook’s change and its retraction is one of personal responsibility. A Facebook profile may have its user’s name on it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it belongs to the user. Just because Facebook reversed course last week and established a ‘Bill of Rights’ to reassure users of their ownership of their content, that doesn’t mean its administrators won’t change their minds in the future.
It has been preached time and time again to this generation that when you put something on the Internet, it is there for everyone to see. This is true. Some employers comb through their applicant’s Facebook profiles, looking for anything incriminating. Nobody wants to lose out on a job in these hard economic times because of a stupid decision to post pictures of something illegal, no matter how funny it seemed at the time. Facebook is relinquishing its right to hold on to users’ information for now, but if this policy changes, they shouln’t blame Facebook if they get in trouble.
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Follow the ball. The problem is that their terms of service state that they are liable to change at any time without warning. This is the issue, not some misguided concern over content ownership.