Jason Calacanis calls for a boycott of Facebook
12 May, 2010
Jason Calacanis, founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, has called for a boycott of social networking site Facebook. “It’s time for the good people of the world to stand up against Facebook. It’s time to build and support OpenID and the creation of a truly open social graph. It’s time to force Facebook to allow open data portability. It is our data, after all,” Calacanis has written in an open email.
“People are creating fan pages on Facebook and then paying Facebook to send them traffic. Let me explain this one more time: You’re PAYING Mark Zuckerberg (founder and CEO of Facebook) money to send traffic to HIS SITE. Think about it. Oh yeah, and while he’s taking your money and page views, he’s convincing everyone that they don’t need their own customer’s information: Just use Facebook Connect! Oh yeah, and if you’re stupid enough to give up your customer database to Facebook, he will pay you back by screwing over your user’s privacy,” Jason Calacanis has further said.
Continuing on his tirade against Facebook and its CEO, Jason Calacanis states, “Casual gaming company Zynga is reportedly developing plans to get over their Facebook dependency. I predict a complete heads-up match with Facebook–Zynga’s now been double-crossed not once but twice by Zuckerberg. (The first double-cross was when Facebook stopped letting applications like Farmville easily market themselves on profile pages.) Instead, Zynga and others were told to advertise their apps if they wanted distribution. OK, I’m guessing that evaporates 20-35% of an app developer’s margin. Now, Facebook is reportedly forcing developers to use their virtual currency–for a 30% cut. These two moves have to take at least 50% of the margin out of Zynga’s business.”
“Over the past month, Mark Zuckerberg, the hottest new card player in town, has overplayed his hand. Facebook is officially ‘out’, as in uncool, amongst partners, parents and pundits all coming to the realization that Zuckerberg and his company are–simply put–not trustworthy,” Jason Calacanis has added. Calacanis has even accused Mark Zuckerberg of ‘stealing’ FourSquare’s check-in feature, ‘stealing’ Twitter’s public facing profiles, ‘flipping’ Facebook users’ privacy setting–three different times and ‘hacking’ Harvard reporters’ accounts to try and stop a negative story/investigation about him.
Read the full email here
FaceBook does need to take an urgent decisions when its handling people's privacy. It cannot be seen to be careless about it.
Good, boycott facebook. Ok why dont we start from your own website mahalo.com Mr. Jason. Facebook text link is still appears in website.
The way I see it, social networking sites will increase in the coming years as the internet pervades all strata of society. The Rules of Caveat Emptor will apply to FaceBook and others just as in the real world.
How about 'Boycott Facebook' page on Facebook Jason?
Call for boycott is understandable but how many shall be willing to go without facebook for a shorter period. Though we r established social networkig concern and willing to offer free registration for people at large to manage net worthiness.
Note: I actually say in my piece that I'm not calling for a boycott. My belief is that Facebook is creating a bigger backlash now than any called-for boycott could.
My hope, actually, is that Facebook start behaving themselves and supporting open standards and respecting people's privacy.
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