Facebook has developed a rather infamous reputation for not offering opt-ins for its new features and such is the case with the revamped Groups feature. Blogger Jason Calacanis and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington were added to a NAMBLA group, drawing public criticism.
For its part, Facebook is standing by the feature. “Many social dynamics on Facebook are determined by the people who use it,” said Facebook spokeswoman Jaime Schopflin. “If you don’t trust someone to look out for you when making these types of decisions on the site, we’d suggest that you shouldn’t be friends on Facebook.”
Kurt Opsahl at Electronic Frontier Foundation was more upbeat, saying, “Facebook should enhance the Groups feature by allowing for the creation of groups where the membership list is secret from members (i.e. just available to the group’s administrators, if anyone), and where group members can interact using pseudonyms rather than their real names.”
As with many issues on a social network, there’s no easy solution: let people use pseudonyms and it might become harder to police bad behavior. Without more options Facebook could face a ban in certain countries even as the debate over private groups and forced membership heats up.
Source: Techtree {link no longer active}
