Facebook goes democratic in bid to appease users

Facebook is giving power to the people when it comes to deciding what to do with policies and products at the leading social-networking website.

Facebook yesterday said it hopes that by giving its more than 175 million users a voice in how the service is run it will avoid the backlash and controversy that have greeted changes implemented by the company.

"This is all about us trusting our users and that we are all on the same page about where we want to go," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a telephone briefing with reporters.

Zuckerberg said Facebook is writing into its terms of service that it will notify each user to proposed changes at the online community and then open a forum for comments before deciding whether to proceed. Plans that trigger controversial feedback will be voted on by Facebook citizens.

"That is a pretty big move," Zuckerberg said.