Last week a nice fellow from Schleswig-Holstein demanded to fine every German company that holds a webpage equipped with a “like” or “share” button. The name of this man is Thilo Weichert and he is the state’s data protection commissioner. The reason for his demand is the dubious doing of Facebook concerning the data of its users. Because he can’t fine Facebook because it claims multinational jurisdiction, it’s far easier to fine those who fall definitely under German law. Good reason and good thought so far!
However, even the federal chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, most of her cabinet and parliament have accounts at Facebook and Webpages with “like” buttons, as Jeff Jarvis recognizes (G+ 20.08.2011 14:21). Does Weichert really want to sue all of Germany, his own bosses included?
There is another thing: Google and Facebook rearrange the Web. Since the Web is to big to be crawled on your own, these companies provide services to assist your virtual activities. While Google knows best about searching, Facebook provides functions to arrange things that have already been found. I.e. : 20 years ago there was something called billboard charts (since Amazon, it seams hard to remember, right?). Every sold single was counted and used to create a hit list, so everyone could see what’s good to listen to. Published wisely such lists created additional revenue and a common sense of participation and culture. Facebook does the same: People who find something on the web, tend to tell people about it. “like” and “share” buttons are the sophisticated version of hit lists. They not only tell you, what everyone likes, but what you might like individually. That’s what makes the Web 2.0.
Weichert’s attempt maybe saves the day, but also sends us back to static webpages of Web. And where does it end? Laws are meant to be universal: If you do it once, you better do it for all. That would mean ban all recommendation buttons as well. Platforms like digg, G+, reddit, etc. would be erased. In the end someone might have the idea to prohibit the address bar because you could write of the web address and recommend it manually! Usually I’m with the data protection commissioners, but that’s just bullshit once again. I guess Weichert is just aiming for attention, to be granted the chair of Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of Germany, which has to be reassigned in about two years.
