On November 21, 2024, Meta Platforms, Inc. announced that it had taken action to close over two million Facebook accounts. The holding company indicated that the impacted users are primarily in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines. Meta subsidiary Facebook alleged that these accounts were linked to criminal activity.
Meta is now updating its Terms of Service, Community Standards and Commercial Use policies. A Terms of Service is a legal document. This post is not legal advice. The pending update is an opportunity to review the components of the Facebook service, and to summarize the offering in good faith and in plain English. Using any of the affiliated products and services on or after January 1, 2025, constitutes acceptance of the new terms.
The service provided to users is connection. Within an envelope of personalized experience, users can interact with other people, groups, businesses and institutions. The system is a vehicle for self expression, in that users can create and share occasions, opinions, photos, videos and more. At the same time, there are opportunities to discover new topics, associations and services. The interface is tailored to a user’s interests and activity.
Meta shows personalized advertisements to users during engagement with the service. Individual data is used to accomplish this realization, and organizations pay Meta to place these ads.
Facebook users agree that they will use their real name, and that they will create only one account. Providing access to your account, or sharing its password, is prohibited. Account holders must be at least 13 years old, unless another, older age is specified in their jurisdiction. Users must adhere to the Community Standards, which are distinct from the Terms of Service.
Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to, uploading malicious or illegal content, unsolicited messaging or violating intellectual property rights. Permission is granted to Facebook to use your name, location, profile picture and all content that is furnished. The material can be distributed, modified and displayed in any manner to provide and improve the service.
This non-exclusive license ends only when items are deleted from the platform by the user. Permission is also granted for ongoing updates to software deployed on user owned devices by Meta and its affiliates. The liability of the platform for the use of its service is strictly limited.
Any modification, translation or development of derivative works from content on the platforms requires authorization. This may be considered Commercial Use, which is another distinct policy document. No license for use is granted beyond the private and immediate experience of each user.
Meta may update the Terms of Service and related documents at any time, however it must provide notice. User accounts may be unilaterally suspended or terminated by the platform for violating any of their terms. Disputes must be resolved in California courts under California law.
By using Meta’s services, we grant them permission to use our information to sell advertising and to develop their products and services. There are limitations on further use of content by individual account holders, and the liability of the platform for any damages is also limited.
As many times as terms may change, some things remain the same. In this case, it seems as though there really is no free lunch. If we are not paying to use a service, perhaps the product is ourselves.
Please feel free to contact me to engage in further discussion about this update or end user license agreements in general.
