RockYou CTO Jia Shen Speaks on Facebook’s Punitive Viral Channel Cut-off

jia shen, cto of rockyouEarly yesterday Inside Facebook’s Adam Lovallo broke the news on Super Wall’s huge traffic drop from 2.1 million to 600,000 daily active users in a matter of only a few days. Tonight, RockYou founder and CTO Jia Shen confirms that the precipitous traffic drop was due to punitive action by Facebook – cutting off Super Wall’s access to viral communication channels – due to policy violations.

Speaking on the decision, Shen said in an email to Inside Facebook:

They turned it off for policy reasons that are slightly debatable. The stated reason is to improve content on the application by implementing the right tools to reduce undesirable content. There are really quite a few details, it doesn’t make sense to go into it since its very tit-for-tat.  Suffice it to say that we’re working to reduce undesirable content, and other applications are also being held or will be held to that standard.

The debatable aspect is that there are policies Facebook has issued, but there is always room for interpretation – and in light of current changes, the interpretation is a lot more stringent now in contrast to before.

Shen’s comments show Facebook’s increasingly strict approach to policy enforcement that even some of the largest developers don’t have full clarity on. Within the last two weeks, two other major applications – Top Friends and Social Me – have been suspended by Facebook for violations of privacy policies. We’ll have more as the story develops.

Inside Social Apps

Mediabistro Event

Facebook Joins Inside Social Apps Event

In the past few weeks, we’ve added industry insiders from Facebook, Chartboost, Tango, Tilting Point, PlayHaven, Paltalk, and more to the speaking roster of Inside Social Apps, June 6-7 in San Francisco. You’ll learn strategies for success with experts like Deb Liu, Product Manager at Facebook. Register now and save $200. 

Leave a Reply

2 Responses to “RockYou CTO Jia Shen Speaks on Facebook’s Punitive Viral Channel Cut-off”

  1. Facebook en guerra con RockYou y Super Wall | Facebook Noticias says:

    [...] | InsideFacebook Tags: Aplicaciones, Problemas, RockYou, Super [...]

  2. Who Is Making Money With iPhone Applications? | andrewteman.org says:

    [...] it seems that the once white hot facebook app market is cooling way down. Big guys like Slide and RockYou are getting slapped by facebook, the once super-cool hack-athons are now totally lame, and even [...]

interested in advertising with inside facebook?

Social Media Jobs
of the Day

Web Developer

Mullen
Winston Salem, NC

Director of Social Media

Moosylvania
St. Louis, MO

Featured Company

Join leading companies like this one and recruit from the nation's top media job seekers on the Mediabistro Job Board. Every job post comes with our satisfaction guarantee. Learn More
 

Our Sponsors

Also from Inside Network:   AppData - Facebook & iOS Application Stats   PageData - Engagement Data on Facebook Pages   Facebook Marketing Bible   Inside Network Research
WebMediaBrands
Mediabistro | SemanticWeb | Inside Network
Jobs | Education | Research | Events | News
Advertise | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
Copyright 2012 WebMediaBrands Inc. All rights reserved.