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Facebook Capitulates On Policy

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 19, 2009

NEW YORK - In an about-face following a torrent of online protests, Facebook is backing off a change in its user policies while it figures how best to resolve questions like who controls the information shared on the social networking site.

The site quietly updated its terms of use a couple of weeks ago. The changes sparked an uproar after consumer rights advocacy blog Consumerist.com pointed them out in a post titled "Facebook's New Terms Of Service: 'We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.'"

Facebook has since sought to reassure its users that this is not the case. Then Wednesday, users were greeted by a message saying that the site is reverting to its previous terms of use policies.

Facebook spelled out, in plain English rather than the legalese that prompted the protests, that it "doesn't claim rights to any of your photos or other content. We need a license in order to help you share information with your friends, but we don't claim to own your information."

The Associated Press

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