Facebook's Terms of Service Vote Begins

We wrote earlier that Facebook was going to allow site users to vote on its new Terms of Service. Well, the polls are now open, and users can start voiting.

You probably remember the massive explosion that happened when Facebook modified its Terms of Service (ToS) such that it implied Facebook owned all your content, forever. They eventually backed down, reverting to the prior ToS, but the damage was done.

As Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said when they first announced the vote:

"Companies like ours need to develop new models of governance. Rather than simply reissue a new Terms of Use, the changes we’re announcing today are designed to open up Facebook so that users can participate meaningfully in our policies and our future."

At any rate, voting has begun and you can vote here. Voting will remain open until next Thursday, April 23, at 11:59 AM PDT. Facebook says:

You will have two options on the ballot, as shown below: 1) the new Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR), which incorporate feedback from users and experts received during the 30-day comment period, or 2) the current Terms of Use, which were developed by Facebook and did not go through an outside comment period.

One thing to remember, though: the results are not binding unless 30% of "active" users vote. An "active user" is defined as "those who have logged into the site within the past 30 days." That's a concern for Julius Harper Jr., the man who formed the "People Against the New Terms of Service" group. He told PC World:

"My concern is, how realistic it is to expect 30 percent of people who have logged into Facebook at least once in the previous 30 days to participate? That's easily tens of millions of people."

Yes, since Facebook just passed 200 million users (not all of which, admittedly, may qualify as "active") that would be quite a number of votes required. Still, all we can do is wait and see.