Facebook bans incentivizing users to Like Pages, gives developers until November 5 to update apps

In addition to releasing Graph API version 2.1 today, Facebook also announced two important changes to its Platform Policies under games and proper use. Developers have 90 days (until November 5, 2014) to comply with the new rules.

Here is how Facebook spells the two out:

• Games which include mandatory or optional in-app charges must now disclose this in their app’s description, either on Facebook or other platforms it supports. This is to give people a clear indication that your game may charge people during gameplay.
• You must not incentivize people to use social plugins or to like a Page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a Page. It remains acceptable to incentivize people to login to your app, checkin at a place or enter a promotion on your app’s Page. To ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them, we want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives. We believe this update will benefit people and advertisers alike.

The first change is pretty straightforward: if you’re a game developer, just add the appropriate warning to your app and you’re done. If you don’t charge for anything in your game, you don’t have to do anything.

The second change is, however, much more interesting. It appears that Facebook is once again cracking down on those who are trying to game its algorithms. Let’s put it this way: if your Facebook Page isn’t growing organically, meaning you are giving it artificial boosts, you should probably reevaluate your strategy for adding users.

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See also – Facebook rolls out Promoted Page Likes globally, lets anyone easily buy ads to acquire Likes for their Page and The Web just got a speed boost: Facebook rewrites its Like Box plugin to be up to 4x faster

Top Image Credit – Robyn Beck/Getty Images