Facebook.com, the United States’ second-largest social networking site behind MySpace.com, will in October do away with previous regulations that barred certain Web surfers from registering with the site, and any person with a valid e-mail address will be able to post a profile and communicate with other users, The Wall Street Journal reports.Facebook’s user base is made up mostly of college students, as it initially restricted site registration to people with “.edu” e-mail addresses—or addresses associated with an academic entity. A few months ago, the site decided to offer membership to some specific parties, including a handful of major firms, nonprofits and members of the U.S. armed services.The site currently boasts about 9 million total users, according to the Journal, and some of them have been putting pressure on the site in recent days to open its pages to more Web surfers because they want to connect with people who don’t qualify for Facebook registration.Facebook is looking to expand; however, the move could have an inverse effect, because some of its success has been based on the feelings of exclusivity its users felt in the past. In October, following Facebook’s planned move, new users will still need to link up with one of upwards of 500 regional networks meant to limit the amount of information users can access on each other, Melanie Deitch, a Facebook spokeswoman, told the Journal.Just last week, Facebook made national headlines after making controversial changes to its site that enabled people to more easily track other users. Some 500,000 Facebook users inked a petition requesting that the site do away with the new features. In response, Facebook added a new privacy safeguard that granted users some control over who can access their information. Related Links: Facebook Offers Privacy Safeguard to Quell Backlash Facebook Modifications Spark Privacy ProtestsCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems, Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Generative AI Generative AI feature 10 business intelligence certifications and certificates to advance your BI career From BI analysts and BI developers to BI architects and BI directors, business intelligence pros are in high demand. Here are the certifications and certificates that can give your career an edge. By Thor Olavsrud Dec 01, 2023 8 mins Certifications Business Intelligence IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe