An open letter to Blake Chandlee, Facebook, VP & Commercial Director APAC, LATAM & CEEMEA

Nov. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- Dear Blake,

First of all I hope you don't find it offensive to call you by first name
but in the Internet world, especially in Social Media era, people tend to be more personal.
And I had an opportunity to watch your presentation @ FacebookNOW conference in Poland
- you even got a positive review on my blog ;) - and we exchanged some messages after it.

I wish I could have contacted you via Facebook but neither with providing any reason
nor with any prior warning my Facebook account was suspended 24 hours ago.

Quite ironic - I hope that having lived in London for a longer while you are acquainted with the British sense of humour-
one of the links I published on my Facebook profile prior to my profile's "execution" was an interview with Blake Chandlee himself
http://www.brief.pl/brieftv/briefcafe/art139,facebook-powerfull-community.html

in which you say:

"the idea is to allow people share & connect in a more efficient way"

"a new open & transparent world"

whereas what I have just learned Facebook's own regulations don't comply with such statements.

Pls find two excerpts from http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=45&hloc=en_US :
"Unfortunately, for technical and security reasons,
Facebook cannot provide you with a description or copy of the removed content."

"Depending on the severity of the violation, it is not guaranteed that you will receive a warning prior to becoming disabled.
Unfortunately, accounts that are disabled for severe violations
of Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities cannot be restored."

What kind of transparency does Facebook mean? The decision seems to be absolutely arbitrary,
based upon the opinion of one of the admins. And since the ancient Rome the mankind
takes pride in the rule called "presumption of innocence".

In the above interview you mention:

"since Jan 2010 we've doubled the number of users in the Polish market
which gives us lots of opportunities for advertisers"

and I hope that you recognise my tiny share in your success. Because it's me
- the same as a few milions of other Poles - who published hundreds of pictures, thousands
of comments, numerous links that provide Facebook with advertising space and earnings.

You also mentioned that "the marketers have to listen" so I gullibly believe
that it's high time Facebook listened to the voice of one (ex)user from Poland.
We don't want another dictator - if you visited my blog you could see a bluish photo of Stalin,
which I think is a very clear metaphor of the whole situtation - who knows better what is going to make us happy.
And I used "we" as there are many opinions very similar to mine. And as a nation we don't like to be partonised
by American corporations who sometimes believe that the Polish dwell in igloos - AOL, eBay are the most prominent
examples of complete failures while entering the Polish market.

I personally believe that there's a lot in the saying "think globally, act locally" and I hope that
Facebook can respect the users. Even if they are not from the USA or UK...

my best rgds,

Mirek Polyniak

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mirpo
http://www.twitter.com/PolishJedi

PS. Personally the saddest thing for me: one of my last activites on Facebook was advising one of my connections
how his friend can get chemotherapy without much delay.