Facebook's walled garden: login required to read public Pages

2 points

14 years ago

I was reading the EFF public page on Facebook [1] and as soon as I reached the end of the page, a popup asked me to "login to continue". Since Facebook enforces a real-name policy [2], it means that I would disclose my identity just to read the content of the EFF's public Facebook profile.

I closed my Facebook account this summer when I got my first job. Since I studied in 4 countries in the past four years, it isn't easy to keep in touch with friends and family without Facebook (which has a global penetration rate of 84% in 2011, according to Comscore [3] . And I consider that to be my problem.

However, I find disturbing that privacy advocates like the EFF keep using Facebook as the service forces their audiences to register, even to access a public profile.

I understand why Facebook does this, and they're totally in their rights. But is it acceptable for the EFF and tech enthusiasts to continue pushing content into an massive, unnecessary walled garden?

  [1] http://www.facebook.com/eff (Chrome: press Ctrl+Shift+N to open in an icognito window)
  [2] http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=112146705538576
  [3] http://wearesocial.net/blog/2011/12/comscore-2011-social-world/