Cheers to Moveon.org for challenging the privatized non-public world of MySpace and so much of the commercially branded and shaped social network environment. As the WSJ’s Amy Schatz reported last Friday, “MoveOn.org launched a campaign against social networking sites, trying to pressure MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites to abide by a “bill of rights†for users that would lift some restrictions on how they can use the site. If candidates want to use social networking sites as virtual town halls, then new rules need to apply, Eli Pariser, MoveOn’s executive director said at the annual Personal Democracy Forum conference in New York this afternoon. “If this is a democratic platform it should be democratic”…
Please see Moveon’s page on its campaign. This is a crucial battle. Will the key online communities be primarily commercial fronts (serving the needs of major brand advertisers)? Or will they place public concerns first? We believe that since these online sites are primarily about marketing and advertising, they will fiercely resist becoming vehicles for serious political and social transformation. Over the next few weeks, we will be writing on this and related themes for our future of the Internet and the public interest project.