The way Facebook currently works, people may add others to groups without their approval, essentially making groups opt-out, rather than opt-in. This is a massive problem. It allows people to add others to groups, making it seem like they support the agenda the group is pushing. In case you doubt what I’m saying, this has already happened (link in Norwegian).
While there are a number of problems with Facebook, not least of which being that their users are the product, and the customer are advertisers, this is one of the bigger ones. If it was my decision, I would make and groups, like tags, opt-in, rather than opt-out. That way, the users are allowed to retain control of their online persona.
Frankly, I think this is a change that Facebook are going to have to make sooner, rather than later. With the influx of users of all ages – particularly the parents and grandparents of the original user base – I suspect that they will struggle to maintain relevance in the coming years regardless of what they do, but if they don’t make this change, that struggle will become a hard slog of an uphill battle.
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