Cracks becoming more pronounced on social networks

Are cracks in the social media networks becoming more pronounced as this industry is virtually on a fast forward mode? Well, the recent facebook fiasco definitely points towards that. And why not? Facebook had a unique visitor base of 54,552,000 as on December 2008.

It all began on February 11, 2009, when a slight change in Facebook’s terms of service pertaining to the ownership of user content after being deleted, created an uproar in the blogosphere. The company reiterated that its licenses on user content expired upon account deletion.

A company statement clarifying the deed as reported by CNN said, "We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material that users upload.” "The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with the behavior of the site," it said. "That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc...), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend)."

Facebook officials, I am sure were not expecting such a public display of anger. What started off as a public debate soon snowballed into a massive controversy? And why not! Social networks have gripped the attention of the net surfing communities globally.

Whether its chit-chatting with friends, promoting a brand, social networking or measuring consumer response to new products, social networks have become the one big networking playground for all of us. Huge money is riding on social networks like Facebook, hence our content better be safe with us.

This brings me to another question! Will the recent controversy involving Facebook trigger social media network users to be more cautious about content in social networks? Well, if such networks offer infinite benefits to users then they also must be ready to face the music.

In a damage control exercise, with much haste Facebook changed the policy statement to what it was in the first week of February. As it stand now, Facebook's terms of service claim that the company does not have ownership over content, yet that it does have "an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (to)...use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works, and distribute" material as long as it doesn't violate the privacy preferences set by the user.

So users be aware! Before you upload your content, pictures et al, be careful….for you might end up seeing your stuff on the promotional pages of one of the third party vendor s (of facebook).