Facebook has officially become the land of the free, after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the new terms of service for the site will be submitted to user voting. The announcement came after thousands spoke against Facebook’s decision to make some controversial changes to its policy.

 

Facebook recently announced a few changes to its terms of service, which included having access to user’s uploaded content of information even after the user has deleted the account. But privacy advocates and users intervened, saying Facebook was taking too many rights.

 

Soon after that, Facebook reconsidered the changes and went back to the old terms of service until all privacy concerns are being resolved. Furthermore, the social networking site said it will take into account user feedback upon releasing a new policy.

 

The past week reminded us that users feel a real sense of ownership over Facebook itself, not just the information they share, Zuckerberg said. Therefore, users will now be able to review, comment and vote on the new terms of policy, over the coming weeks.

 

On March 29, the comment period will close, and Facebook will take into consideration all the feedback, and will republish the Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. The voting is officially open as of February 25.

 

The results will later be made public, and if more than 30 percent of all active registered users vote, they will also be considered binding. This is indeed an unprecedented initiative, too bad Facebook took this step only under a rain of protests.