Facebook Users Protest Against Facebook Redesign

SAN FRANCISCO - More than 1.7 million Facebook users have joined a protest against another redesign of the popular social networking site, in one of the biggest consumer revolts seen in the online world.

As of midday Monday, the Facebook group called Petition Against the New Facebook had 1,727,394 disgruntled members, while a Facebook-sponsored poll on the redesign had received more than 1.2 million votes, with just 75,000 approving the new look.

The redesign was foisted on the site’s 175 million worldwide users late last week in a bid by Facebook to better compete with microblogging sites such as Twitter while also making its pages more advertiser friendly.

Opponents of the new design say it clutters their home page with updates from people they don’t care about, while also limiting the number of features available to users.

Facebook has acknowledged the criticism, but so far has declined to take any action.

‘The new Facebook home page is one step in the continued evolution of the site, designed to give people more ways to share and filter all types of content, such as status updates, photos, videos, notes and more,’ the company said in a statement.

‘We are listening carefully to what people are saying about the new home page through a variety of channels and are committed to using it to inform how we build and improve the site for everyone.’