Facebook Change Their Terms Of Use For Fan Pages

If you are the administrator of a Facebo0ok Fan page and you recently got a message like this from Facebook then you are probably a little upset to say the least.

Most people who receive this kind of warning have no idea that they have violated any of Facebooks’ terms and conditions and feel somewhat victimized, especially if they have spent a lot of time and effort building up their Facebook community only to have their publishing rights taken away.

Jane Savoie Gets Her Fan Page Disabled

This exact thing happened to Jane Savoie, an Olympic horseback riding champion who had her publishing rights removed by Facebook because they deem her page to “represent generic concepts” I can only assume that they looked at the name of her fan page and decided that it did not clearly represent her business.

“Solve Horseback Riding Fears” has become a thriving community of horse owners and people interested in horseback riding and Jane has been the driving force behind this community. I have suggested to Jane that she contact Facebook directly (disabled@facebook.com)  to request that they reinstate her publishing rights and that they change the name slightly to reflect that it represents her business more clearly to “Jane Savoie : Solve Horse Back Riding Fears”

Facebook Change Their Terms Of Service

Facebook restricts the publishing rights of Pages that impersonate other entities, represent generic concepts, spam users, or otherwise violate our Terms of Use. These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit the Terms applicable to Facebook Pages at http://www.facebook.com/terms_pages.php

Facebook Pages Terms : Date of Last Revision: March  26, 2010
1.   Pages are special profiles that may only be used to promote a business or other commercial, political, or charitable organization or endeavor (including non-profit organizations, political campaigns, bands, and celebrities).

2. You may only administer a Facebook Page if you are an authorized representative of the subject of the Page.

3. Pages can only post content and information under the “everyone” setting.

4. When you publish content or information to your Page we have no obligation to distribute your content or information to users.

5. If you use a Fan Box widget off of our site to promote your Page, others will be able to copy and place the widget elsewhere.

6. You may not place a Fan Box widget in an advertisement.

7. If you collect user information on your Page, Section 9 of this Statement also applies to you.

8. If you display advertising on your Page, Section 11 of this Statement also applies to you.

9. You may not establish terms beyond those set forth in this Statement to govern the posting of content by users on a Page you administer, except you may disclose they types of content you will remove from your Page and grounds for which you may ban a user from accessing the Page.

10. You will restrict access to your Page in order to comply with all applicable laws.  For example, if your Page includes content not suitable for minors, you will use your Page to block minors from accessing your Page.

Why Did Facebook Make These Changes

The reason Facebook made these changes is to stop people using Fan pages to spam the news feed of their Fans. A recent trend has emerged due to the immense power of Facebook fan pages to host what would normally be considered a Group on a Facebook fan page, and while most of these pages are harmless a small minority are used by professional marketers and spammers to hijack the Facebook newsfeed and inundate people with offers and promotional stuff.

Since Facebook are sworn to protect the user experience they have modified their terms and conditions so they can shut these pages down or at least take away the power from the administrators. Unfortunatly a few legitimate businesses and Fan Pages will get punished under these new rules, Jane Savoie is obviously one of them

Be Careful What You Name Your Fan Page

If you set up a new Facebook Page you need to be very careful how you name your Fan page to make it clear to Facebook that you are a business. While you should ensure that your fan page name clearly states benefits you will provide to your fans and includes your main keywords (preferably at the beginning) you need to clearly state that you are a business or you will fall into the catch all category of representing “Genric concepts”

Solve Horseback Riding Fears

Jane started her fan page back in October of 2009 and it has rapidly grown to over 10,000 members. Its probably one of the most engaged niche communities that I have seen on Facebook and it will be a terrible blow to the community if Jane is not quickly reinstated with full control of her fan page again.

Help Jane Get Her Fan Page Back

If you want to help Jane get her fan page back you can send an email to facebook at disabled@facebook.com asking them to reinstate her publishing rights. This is especially important if you are also a Fan of her fan page. If enough people express their concerns Facbook will  change their minds and make an exception.

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