Back in February Facebook announced its new governance structure, which would allow people to comment for a 30-day period on proposed documents – Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. The 30-day period recently ended, and Facebook is ready to take the next steps.
On April 16th, the company will be posting revised versions of the documents based on the feedback received thus far. They will also be posting explanations of why certain changes were/were not made. Users will then be able to vote on the revised documents from April 16th until April 23rd. Justin Smith at Inside Facebook does a good job of breaking down the voting process:
– If at least 7,000 users comment on the proposed changes during the comment period, Facebook will hold a user vote.
– If 30% of all active users (defined as users who have logged in once in the last 30 days) vote, the results will be considered “binding.”
– If less than 30% of all active users vote, the results will be considered “advisory” (i.e. non-binding).
– Voting will be done through an application on the Facebook Platform developed by Wildfire, and Ernst & Young will “audit the vote tabulation… to ensure the votes are accurate.”
“Your continued involvement in this process is crucial, and we want to thank everyone who has participated so far,” says Facebook’s Simon Axten. “We look forward to taking the next step towards a more democratic system of online governance.”
Facebook is taking the documents very seriously. They have asked for comments from privacy, copyright and Internet law experts, and others. Vote tabulation will be audited by Ernst & Young to insure that results are accurate.
