 "Photo: www.facebook.com")
In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the Facebook world was turned upside down. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of the largest online social network for students, created two new features for Facebook.com. The news feed feature and the mini-feed have caused an uproar from students from LMU and across the globe concerning security and privacy issues.
Belinda Leos, a sophomore economics major, was one of many LMU students who reacted negatively, saying, "I hate it. I don't like people knowing every single thing that I do."
The mini-feed feature, which automatically shows up on every user's profile, displays information about the person's recent Facebook activities, including friend requests, message board comments and new pictures. This feature has come under question by hundreds of thousands of members. The news feed feature, however, which highlights the latest news and activities regarding each user's friend network, is what has received the most backlash.
Within 33 hours of the feature's release, 200,000 students had joined the Facebook group "students against Facebook news feed," which claims that the site's new features "destroy privacy."
Benjamin Parr, a student at Northwestern University founded the group which, as of press time, had more than 500,000 students as members. When asked by the Loyolan about what he thought about the vast number of people who joined his group, he said, "it was completely and utterly unexpected but I think it gets the message across [to Facebook.]"The demands of the group include that either the news feed option on Facebook is removed, or that there is an option for students to remove themselves from the feature.
Shannon LeBrun, a sophomore, theatre and marketing major was also among the dissatisfied, claiming that the features, which display detailed information about the Facebook activities of a person's friends, "encourage stalking."
"I feel like everyone knows every little thing that I do," LeBrun said.
Zuckerberg responded to the outcry of many users with a blog entry that said, "We agree, stalking isn't cool; but being able to know what's going on in your friends' lives is." He added that "Facebook didn't take away any privacy options." In essence, virtually all of the information on the news feed could have already been discovered through the site. Facebook maintains that these features organize it and makes it easily accessible.
Although the vast majority of Facebook groups that have been formed in response to the features are negative, some were created in favor of the features, and many say that the feature only makes it easier to do what Facebook's mission is in the first place -- to network with friends.
Lauren White, a senior graphic design major, said she didn't mind the additions to the site, but did say it looked much more "unorganized." On why so many people were opposed to the news feeds, White said, "They're afraid they're going to get caught stalking someone."
As of now, it is unclear whether or not the features will be removed. Facebook has around 14 million users -- including 2,500 colleges, 22,000 high schools and 1,000 work networks. Zuckerberg said his team was open to "suggestions about how to improve the product," and that the news feed is "brand new and still evolving."
