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Well, democracy is running wild around the world!

As the United States plans on lifting the embargo on Cuba, we see a move by Facebook to allow a democratic vote to set the “Terms of Service – the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Facebook Principles”. A move that is quite in contrast to the move that Facebook made about two months ago when they told all users that they own all the users content on the site. But why make such a huge 180-degree turn? Why let people vote? Can it really be democratic? These are only answers that time will tell, and the actions of Facebook in the next few months will really show the users and the world if they believe in democracy or if this is just a big hoax. 

Some interesting points to keep in mind are the following;

1. Will Facebook users even read the proposed changes document? It is to be assumed that most users of Facebook are not aware of the right that they have given to Facebook originally and further more don’t have the patients to read the suggested changes.

2. Will Facebook China be allowed to vote in a democratic election? Since China has not had a democratic vote politically for years, it can be assumed that the governing rulers will not want to allow such freedoms. As well all other non-democratic countries, will they have a chance to vote?

3. Will Facebook be opening themselves up to a world of unexpected user expectations by suggesting that they are now democratic? It would be assumed that by letting the users vote on this topic that Facebook users may now expect and want to vote on all other future changes since this precedent is being set.

It is a good move in my opinion to let users vote and get involved, I am not sure if I would say it is the best idea because once pandora’s box is opened it will be very difficult to close and now Facebook users will expect to vote all further changes. This might cause even greater push back against Facebook in years to come; as it can me assumed that Facebook will not want to release control.