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The Facebook betrayal - users revolt over advertising sell-out Susie Mesure and Ian Griggs It used to be a great way to swap student party drinking stories. Office workers embraced it as a chance for a quick escape from the daily drudgery – until their bosses banned it. And 50-something parents marvelled at a virtual window on what their children were up to. That is the appeal of Facebook, which in little more than a year has exploded from an elite student-only club into a global social networking phenomenon with more than 54 million users. But with Facebook's latest attempt to turn those users into dollars, the site that was started in 2004 as a way for one Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, to stay in touch with his classmates has grown up faster than a child who has just found out the truth about Father Christmas. Like that kid on Christmas Eve, the innocence of Facebook's users, including almost 11 million in the UK, has been shattered by the site's decision to fall into the clutches of the corporate world. First Facebook, which is run by the 23-year-old Mr Zuckerberg, sold Microsoft a 1.6 per cent stake for $240m (valuing the site at a staggering $15bn) and then it announced plans to plaster users' mugshots on advertisements for products that they like. Its new strategy, dubbed "social advertising", is a twist on word-of-mouth marketing and will turn its users into cyber ambassadors for commercial brands, often unwittingly. Unwittingly, because all most Facebook
(Article continues below) users know about the site's plans came via a brief blog posting when they logged on 11 days ago. The new technology will also allow businesses to build custom-designed "pages" on the social networking site. Users can become "fans" of a company's page, which means any interaction with that brand will be broadcast to their Facebook friends. Privacy campaigners are up in arms about Facebook's move, lambasting the company for selling out its users to the highest bidders – companies such as Coca-Cola, Sony, Verizon and Blockbuster.
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