• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, April 6, 2009

In response to the outcry over its revised terms of service in February, Facebook reverted to its previous terms and announced it would allow users to provide feedback and vote on its proposed new "governing documents."

Following a 30-day public comment period, the company has now announced that revised versions of the Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (replacing its terms of service) will be posted on April 16 for voting through April 23. The process will be handled through an application developed by Wildfire and the vote tabulation will be audited by Ernst & Young.

"On April 16, we'll be posting revised versions of the documents based on the feedback we've received," wrote Simon Axten, a privacy and public policy associate at Facebook, on the company blog last Friday. "We'll also be sharing a written response to the main concerns people have expressed. This will explain in clear language why we did -- or did not -- make certain changes. This is similar to how U.S. federal agencies create regulations."

Since unveiling its proposed changes in February, the company said it has received 3,000 comments from the more than 10,000 members who joined groups set up to discuss both of the new user agreements. If approved, all future proposed changes will go through a period of notice and comment, and will only be put to a vote if at least 7,000 people comment.

That means that more than 52 million of Facebook's 175 million active users would have to vote next week on the new terms for them to be binding -- a high bar to meet, given the 3,000 comments so far. Axten said in an email Monday that the company plans to announce the vote on users' home pages as well as through another post on the Facebook blog.

He added that if at least 30% of active users (people who have logged into Facebook at least once in the previous 30 days) vote, and the agreements are not approved, the current terms of use (last revised on Sept. 23, 2008) will remain in effect. If less than 30% vote, the outcome would be advisory rather than binding, and "we'll take the results into consideration as we determine next steps," said Axten.

The uproar over the revisions made in February stemmed from Facebook appearing to claim a perpetual license to material uploaded to the social network. The backlash led the company to adopt the new community-based approach to deciding governance matters.