It appears that the social networking site Facebook, which recently came under fire for its policies and terms of service, has found a democratic way to appease its users.

Facebook, on Thursday, announced its decision to allow its users to vote on the site’s future policy changes. The social networking site announced that it is opening up its policy making to users’ feedback, and its users will now be allowed to give feedback and vote over any changes that the site will make in its policies or terms of service in future.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the site will seek its users’ feedback on proposed changes to its terms of service and other policies from now onwards. Zuckerberg elaborated that if the site gets feedback from over 7,000 users, the voting will be conducted on proposed policy, and if more than 30% of all active registered users vote, their decision will be binding on the company. Facebook has currently 175 million users, so the 30% of the active registered users means “nearly 53 million people”.

In a company blog post, Zuckerberg said, "Our main goal at Facebook is to help make the world more open and transparent. We believe that if we want to lead the world in this direction, then we must set an example by running our service this way. I believe these steps are unprecedented in promoting understanding and enabling participation on the Web."

However, Zuckerberg clarified that the criterion of users’ voting applies just on the issues associated with data ownership and privacy, but not to the company's products and services. Zuckerberg said, "There will be hundreds and thousands of product changes going forward, and that's not what we're talking about. This is about the rules and framework."

Facebook’s present announcement has come after the past week’s controversy, when the social networking site announced changes in its terms of service to get more control on the content posted on the site, but seeing its users’ reaction the site annulled the changes and retreated to the old terms of service. Zuckerberg said, "The past week reminded us that users feel a real sense of ownership over Facebook itself, not just the information they share."

Facebook is reportedly gearing up for its users feedback and voting over its Guiding Principles, which articulate user rights and framework for policy initiation, and its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which replaces the company's existing Terms of Use policy.

Zuckerberg said, "History tells us that systems are most fairly governed when there is an open and transparent dialogue between the people who make decisions and those who are affected by them. We believe history will one day show that this principle holds true for companies as well, and we're looking to moving in this direction with you."

Meanwhile, Facebook’s democratic approach has been greatly applauded. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), said, "We support the effort to establish a 'principles' and also a 'statement of rights and responsibilities.' We look forward to the opportunity for users to participate in those discussions."

However, "I think that the privacy concerns are going to be an ongoing question with Facebook, and the key concern will continue to be that Facebook users really need to own and control their information," Rotenberg said.