I?established?a?Facebook?account?in?2008.?My?motivation?was?ignoble:?I?wanted?to?distribute?my?journalism?more?widely.?I?have?acquired?since?then?just?over?four?thousand?"friends"——in?Afghanistan,?Pakistan,?India,?the?Middle?East,?and?of?course,?closer?to?home.?I?have?discovered?the?appeal?of?Facebook's?community ——for?example,?the?extraordinary?emotional?support?that?swells?in?virtual?space?when?people?come?together?online?around?a?friend's?illness?or?life?celebrations.

Thought?its?bedrock?appeals?to?friendship,?community,?public?identity,?and?activism——and?its?commercial?exploitation?of?these?values——Facebook?is?an?unprecedented?synthesis?of?corporate?and?public?spaces.?The?corporation's?social?contract?with?user?is?ambitious,?yet?neither?its?governance?system?nor?its?young?ruler?seem?trustworthy.?The?came?this?month's?initial?public?offering?of?stock——a?chaotic?and?revealing?event——?which?promises?to?put?the?whole?enterprise?under?even?greater?pressure.

There?are?many?reasons?to?be?skeptical?about?Facebook's?I.P.O.,?which?raise?$16?billion?for?the?company.?For?investors,?as?my?colleague?John?Cassidy?has?pointed?our,?the?company's?founders?and?early?investors?are?likely?to?do?better?with?this?much-hyped?event?than?individual?investors.?The?offering?itself?was?as?visible?a?disaster?as?a?lead?underwriting?bank?(in?this?cas,?Morgan?Stanley)?has?turned?in?for?some?time:?Facebook?shares?have?fallen?by?more?than?ten?per?cent;?there?were?trading?screwups?by?Nasdaq;?and?lawsuits?and?regulatory?investigations?into?whether?Morgan?and?Facebook?properly?shared?information?with?investors?have?already?started.

This?launch-pad?explosion?is?also?one?more?reason?to?be?wary?of?what?my?colleague?James?Surowiecki?has?analyzed:?Facebook's?two-tiered?corporate-governance?system,?which?ensures?that?founder?Mark?Zukerberg?retains?firm?control,and?can't?be?easily?challenged?by?dissident?shareholders,?even?if?he?steers?badly?off?course,?as?highly?self-confident?men?in?their?late?twenties?sometimes?do.

Those?are?reasons?for?investors?to?be?doubtful;?at?least?as?worrying?is?what?the?I.P.O.-palooza?signals?about?Facebook's?sovereignty?over?citizens,?here?and?abroad.?Facebook's?sovereignty?over?citizens,?here?and?abroad.?Facebook?has?become?a?public?square?of?global?importance.?By?the?end?of?the?summer,?it?may?have?more?than?a?billion?users,?or?about?fifteen?per?cent?of?the?world's?population.?Some?of?these?people?are?restive?and?see?Facebook?as?a?substitute?public?space?for?speech?and?dissent?that?their?own?authoritarian?regimes?don't?provide.

Within?the?United?States,?Facebook?is?a?venue?for?all?sorts?of?issue?and?political?campaigns.?And?yet,?on?the?site,?as?a?practical?matter,?what?speech?is?permitted?or?banned?is?determined?largely?by?Facebook's?terms?of?service.?The?terms?functions?as?a?corporate?constitution?binding?users?to?the?provider's?conceptions?of?what?speech?is?acceptable.?My?colleague?at?the?new?American?Foundations,?Rebecca?MacKinnon,?in?her?recent?book?"Consent?of?the?Networked,"?calls?this?realm?"Facebookistan."?Once?Facebook?user?sign?on?and?accept?the?terms?of?service,?their?postings?are?subordinate?to?the?corporation's?rules,?for?as?long?as?they?choose?to?stay.?In?a?place?like?Syria,?the?facebook?rules?users?encounter?are?much?more?permissive?than?local?laws;?in?the?United?States,?that?is?not?so?clear.(to?be?continued)