Yesterday in my Quick Thoughts post I made a joking reference to Robert Scoble and how we would need one of his foot in mouth type rants to make it through the boring week of post holiday news doldrums. Never did I think that he would take a cranky old fart’s suggestion and run with it; but apparently he has done just that.

As I settled in this morning with my fresh pot of coffee close by and began reading through my feeds I glanced over at TwitBox for a quick take of what the Twitter universe was saying, which is where I caught Mathew Ingram message about an Uber-blogger and Facebook. Well in the world of blogging when you see the words Uber-Blogger chances are there is only one person they are talking about - Robert Scoble.

Well keeping to my routine of methodically reading through my feeds from top to bottom gave me some time to let the thought in the back of my mind about what Robert could be up to rumble around. As I continued my reading it became apparent as to what Robert had done in order to get the tech blogosphere worked up - Robert had gotten himself banned from his electronic rolodex.

From Kara Swisher to Mathew Ingram to Robert’s own post that started it all, the story was that Robert had knowingly run an automated script that scraped all his data from his Facebook account. In the process he got caught with his hands in the proverbial data cookie jar by the Facebook cops and in the ultimate smack down in our digital world he ceased to exist within the world of Facebook - Account Suspended.

Now Robert is well known for pushing the limits when it comes to web companies and the terms of services (TOS) that they wrap themselves in, as was displayed when Robert and his son got booted from Second Life. While that episode may have passed into electronic oblivion the chances are this incident with Facebook won’t because of one simple fact - the entire business model that Facebook is based on is at stake. By trying to scrape his data out of the clutches of Facebook Robert is more of a threat than all the whining that went on about the Beacon project.

Here’s the thing though - as much as we all might want to root for Robert against Facebook the simple fact is that he broke the TOS that he agreed to when he signed up. It doesn’t matter that this is all now being wrapped in the guise of him taking the bold steps to fight for data portability, the fact remains he got caught breaking a TOS he previously agreed to. This is what is being missed here. The moment you agree to the Facebook TOS any data inputted into their system now belongs to them regardless if it is something a stupid as a poke or as important as your personal data - they own it lock stock an’ barrel. So depending on the lawyer it could be argued that what Robert was doing was nothing short of theft of a company’s data.

Of course not one to miss an opportunity Robert has said that rather than use his status as Uber-blogger and emailing the Facebook PR folks directly he will be taking the common man route in appealing his smack down. Personally I think it would have been more telling of Facebook’s ethics had he gone the direct route. As it stands PR wise for Robert this going the common man route gives him the air of solidarity with the rest of us common Internet types.

Either way though Facebook is screwed. If they raise Robert’s account from the dead while so many users whose accounts have been suspended; or even worse - removed, for lesser offenses it shows that elitism is alive and well. On the flip side if they stick by their guns in order to protect their business model they are in danger of a full revolt by natives who are already restless and in the process they will see their $15 billion valuation dribble away.

The real winner here regardless of the outcome will be Robert especially as he leads up to January 16th and his announcement of his life after PodTech. After all it’s not everyone who; win or lose (which isn’t likely), can say they challenged the Goliath of social networks and came away smelling like a rose.

The reality is that Robert will have his account re-instated and Facebook will continue on with its march to being the most overblown social network to date and everyone will settle down to living within the walled garden.

For the rest of us … well we can thank Robert for starting a shit storm that will keep us talking until the next hot topic hits Techmeme.

Thanks Robert.

Listening to: Loreena Mckennitt - An Ancient Muse - Caravanserai

Conversation Tags: Facebook, Robert Scoble, terms of service