When it comes down to making money, FaceBook is acting exactly like every other big media & communications company: they are doing everything in their power to extract economic rents, to the extent permitted by law, so long as it doesn't annoy or push away too many customers. This isn't really news.
moultano: my comment was not meant to be cynical; I'm sorry if it came across that way. In hindsight, I could and probably should have worded it differently.
My main point: this is not an isolated incident of FaceBook pushing the boundaries of what's considered acceptable by users to make money; there have been other such incidents in the past. Given the history, should we really be surprised?
If they're toeing the line of acceptability, they're bound to cross over it at some point. This is a discussion about how one user thinks they've crossed that line, what effects that might have on their business and their users and customers, and what can be done to bring it back into line.
Must every article and discussion be about something "surprising"? Meta-discussions like this are dull; if you're uninterested in an article, ignore it.
