Facebook users' vote ending way short of threshold

Apr 23, 2009 By BARBARA ORTUTAY , AP Technology Writer
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(AP) -- Facebook invited the 200 million people who regularly use the site to vote on its governing documents. But it's unclear how much of a difference it will make.

Facebook launched the vote after concerns erupted about who controls users' personal information. The site gave its members until Thursday afternoon to choose either the current terms of use, or a revised set of documents that reflect input from over the past 30 days.

However, said the vote would be binding only if 30 percent of the site's active users voted. That would be 60 million people.

On Thursday morning, a vote on the site revealed that about 609,000 people had cast ballots. Spokesman Barry Schnitt says Facebook plans to announce the results and "next steps" Friday.

©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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