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By Justin Smith 19 Comments »

magpie-twitterThis morning, Facebook announced several proposed changes to the site’s “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities” – Facebook’s governing terms of service document. Under Facebook’s current process, any changes to the SRR must be made available for a public comment period during which users can give feedback on the proposed modifications.

One of the more interesting changes: users are now prohibited from profiting through the use of their Facebook profile, and specifically, from selling their status updates to advertisers. Section 4.2 reads:

4. Registration and Account Security

2. You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).

Apparently, Facebook wants to explicitly prohibit companies like Magpie and Twittad from doing the same thing on Facebook that they’ve done on Twitter – create an ad network out of users willing to spam their followers for money. Obviously, sponsored status updates run very counter to Facebook’s vision for the type of information sharing that Facebook wants to support.

It’s a change that few users will be opposed to. The comment period runs until August 18.

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19 Responses to “Facebook’s Proposed TOS Changes Explicitly Outlaw Selling Status Updates to Advertisers”

  1. Full Rundown of All of Today’s Proposed Changes to the Facebook TOS Says:

    [...] we wrote earlier today, Facebook is now explicitly prohibiting companies like Magpie and Twittad from [...]

  2. Michael Murdock Says:

    So does that mean that facebook will shut down its advertising network and eliminate using peoples pictures in ads without their expressed consent or paying them for such usages? Probably not. So strange that they’d shortcircuit the magpie or twittad from being on there. Both of those companies provide a service and it’s not the friends or followers that are paying the money, it’s the advertisers who are. Similar to what facebooks current ad network does. Allows people to pay to post ads for people to click on and perhaps purchase a product or service.

    Someone needs to take Zuckerberg out and show him some of the crap that he’s dealing through that network. They should police it tighter, but some things that they block actually try to provide a legit service and in the end are screwed by the higher-ups.

    Sad, but true.

  3. Facebook prohibits users from selling their status updates to advertisers | Geekword Says:

    [...] Among them one point caught my eye and was quite interesting. Facebook has proposed to prohibit users from profiting through the use of their Facebook profile and more specifically from s…. Section 4.2 [...]

  4. Facebook Tightens Grip on Status Updates | Anthonyrobinson.info Says:

    [...] of the more interesting changes? Users are now prohibited from using their Facebook profile for direct profit. That means selling your status updates to someone willing to pay for the exposure is now a big [...]

  5. We Love Crowds » De-Mock-cracy In Action: Facebook’s Open Governance Says:

    [...] marketing abuse. Facebook hopes to stop spammers from overrunning the site and as pointed out by Inside Facebook, prohibit companies like Magpie, Twittad and Sponsored Tweets from starting profile sponsoring [...]

  6. De-Mock-cracy In Action: Facebook’s Open Governance | RQDC Says:

    [...] marketing abuse. Facebook hopes to stop spammers from overrunning the site and as pointed out by Inside Facebook, prohibit companies like Magpie, Twittad and Sponsored Tweets from starting profile sponsoring [...]

  7. WebHosts 2009» Blog Archive » De-Mock-cracy In Action: Facebook’s Open Governance Says:

    [...] marketing abuse. Facebook hopes to stop spammers from overrunning the site and as pointed out by Inside Facebook, prohibit companies like Magpie, Twittad and Sponsored Tweets from starting profile sponsoring [...]

  8. Casey-Computing and Technology » De-Mock-cracy In Action: Facebook’s Open Governance Says:

    [...] marketing abuse. Facebook hopes to stop spammers from overrunning the site and as pointed out by Inside Facebook, prohibit companies like Magpie, Twittad and Sponsored Tweets from starting profile sponsoring [...]

  9. De-Mock-cracy In Action: Facebook’s Open Governance | google android os blog Says:

    [...] marketing abuse. Facebook hopes to stop spammers from overrunning the site and as pointed out by Inside Facebook, prohibit companies like Magpie, Twittad and Sponsored Tweets from starting profile sponsoring [...]

  10. Mikkel deMib Svendsen Says:

    Even though I don’t like too strict rules I actually find this new restriction very wise. Paid comments polute social medias!

  11. Finance Geek » Microsoft Will Put Office On Nokia Phones Says:

    [...] You can’t sell your Facebook status update to an advertiser [Inside Facebook] [...]

  12. De-Mock-cracy In Action: Facebook’s Open Governance | Tech Story Site Says:

    [...] marketing abuse. Facebook hopes to stop spammers from overrunning the site and as pointed out by Inside Facebook, prohibit companies like Magpie, Twittad and Sponsored Tweets from starting profile sponsoring [...]

  13. James Eliason Says:

    Hello, while I think I see your point here..Twittad doesn’t currently have a Facebook platform. Nor have we ever wanted to move into that space without the help or organization from Facebook.

    I do question how they will police this issue, I think Facebook might have missed out on a revenue share deal with some of their users. Perhaps they will come back to this in the future.

    Regards,
    James Eliason
    Founder/CEO Twittad.com
    Founder http://spon.in

  14. Peter Imbres » Blog Archive » Fresh From Twitter Says:

    [...] to @Facebook for updating their TOS to ban users from selling their status updates to advertisers – http://bit.ly/Rq8JJBad puppy day…she learned to spaz out during conference calls and the joy of digging in INDOOR [...]

  15. De-Mock-cracy In Action: Facebook’s Open Governance - Programming Blog Says:

    [...] marketing abuse. Facebook hopes to stop spammers from overrunning the site and as pointed out by Inside Facebook, prohibit companies like Magpie, Twittad and Sponsored Tweets from starting profile sponsoring [...]

  16. Peter Ahlgren Says:

    Don’t like this idea, the way it ends with innocent people to delete their profiles, so do not impose that rule thanks

    And instead of making stupid rules. So what about use the time to fix your page Iexplore doing. Exe errors at me if some writes via chat,
    Firefox goes crazy when people write on the chat, if I sites in another tab and writes something on a forrum and someone write via chat on FB. Then the other site blockers and can not write again until I have pressed F5. Even Chrome hav trouble whit the FB chat.
    Possible fix the errors instead of wasting time on silly rules

    And this happends on my computer + my laptop

  17. Facebook Tightens Grip on Status Updates | Unit1 Says:

    [...] of the more interesting changes? Users are now prohibited from using their Facebook profile for direct profit. That means selling your status updates to someone willing to pay for the exposure is now a big [...]

  18. Facebook Tightens Grip on Status Updates Says:

    [...] has received some criticism in the past (ahem). One of the more interesting changes? Users are now prohibited from using their Facebook profile for direct profit. That means selling your status updates to someone willing to pay for the exposure is now a big [...]

  19. Francesco Says:

    Actually I had tried this. I was paying the kids € 0.01 per each friend they had per each message. How they loved it! But I had stopped it already, it wasn’t bringing results.

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