The 30-day comment period for submitting feedback on Facebook's proposed governance documents has ended, but the opportunities to help shape the policies that will govern Facebook have only begun. Since announcing the new governance structure in February, we received more than 3,000 comments from the over 10,000 members who joined each of the groups dedicated to discussion about the proposed Facebook Principles and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR).

Thanks to the help of volunteer law students from the University of California Hastings, the University of San Francisco and Santa Clara University, our legal team has been reading every last one of your submissions. The group administrators from the original protest against the changes to the Terms of Use, Julius Harper and Anne Kathrine Yojana Petterøe, have been distilling the feedback down to a list of key concerns. We've also asked for comments from various privacy, copyright and internet law experts as well as several photography trade groups from around the world.

On April 16, we'll be posting revised versions of the documents based on the feedback we've received. 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.

At the same time, we'll be asking people to vote on the new revised documents. Voting will begin on April 16 and end on April 23. It will be done through an application developed on Facebook Platform by Wildfire, and the vote tabulation will be audited by an independent auditor to ensure that the results are accurate.

We encourage you to participate in this vote on our new revised documents. If it is approved, all future changes to the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities will go through the same process of notice and comment. As specified in the SRR, we will hold a vote on any proposed change if at least 7,000 people submit comments and the vote will be advisory unless at least 30 percent of our "active users" (people who have logged into Facebook at least once in the previous 30 days) participate in the vote. If turnout is 30% or more, the results will be binding.

Your continued involvement in this process is crucial, and we want to thank everyone who has participated so far. We look forward to taking the next step towards a more democratic system of online governance.


Simon, an associate on the Public Policy team, hopes to see you and all of your friends at the Facebook voting booth.