Facebook Taking Major Policy Actions on App Developers Today
Facebook has made a big sweep on developers violating Platform policies today, suspending a few popular applications as well as many smaller ones. Many of the applications that have gone missing were quiz applications, and Facebook has confirmed to us that it has suspended MyCalendar, Collect Smiles, and Best Friends, among others.
In the past, Facebook has suspended applications large and small for violating Platform policies, including user privacy. While Facebook didn’t say specifically why any of the applications were suspended today, they’re all most likely due to either violations of Facebook’s privacy rules or creating misleading user experiences. A couple of weeks ago, Facebook also prohibited Facebook Platform ad networks from showing user data in any ads.
We spoke with Facebook’s platform policy head Paul Jeffries this afternoon, who said, “We take enforcement of the platform policies very seriously, and we don’t hesitate to take enforcement action when it’s warranted. We’re committed to maintaining the platform ecosystem that supports the developer at large and supports the user experience.”
Like in other app suspension cases, we expect the developers involved will want to work with Facebook to make the appropriate changes to their applications in order to be allowed back on the Platform. That will likely involve less aggressive use of viral channels and more straightforward claims inside the user experience.
All in all, Facebook is continuing to try to keep the worst apps from gaining too much traction on the Platform. We expect to see similar actions whenever apps that are breaking the rules cause enough headaches for Facebook in the future.
August 21st, 2009 at 6:31 pm
So Facebook takes down MyCalendar, an app with actual functionality, for it to be replaced by “Birthdays,” a throwaway gift app creator spawn-turned-birthday spam app. Yeah, big upgrade.
August 22nd, 2009 at 4:20 am
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August 22nd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
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August 23rd, 2009 at 7:21 am
[...] Facebook cracks down on spamming applications [Inside Facebook] [...]
August 23rd, 2009 at 7:23 am
[...] Facebook cracks down on spamming applications [Inside Facebook] [...]
August 24th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Sounds good
August 24th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Pass a Drink hasn’t been suspended, nor even warned, so please retract. I’m one of the developlers of it. And we’re pretty annoyed at being grouped in with these other apps that do nothing but send notifications. Thx.
October 4th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Egg Breaker is by no means one of Facebook’s “Worst Apps” It is a family friendly game with excellent support. It however seems to have had an IQ ad sunning from a 3rd party that was recommended by facebook, that had a blue box on it that looked too much like a facebook ad, so they had to suspend the app. They told them they had to have the ad down by Tuesday, it was taken down within the hour, but was still suspended. You can put whatever spin you like on it, but Facebook is not taking down nuisance apps, it is picking on easy targets.