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MoveOn Says Facebook ‘May Be the Next Big Opportunity’

Two months ago MoveOn.org was adding thousands of names to a petition criticizing Facebook for “invasion of privacy” because the social-networking site shared information about users via its Beacon application. Today the liberal activist group asked me (and a few million others) to participate in its League of Young Voters Primary — on Facebook of all places.

MoveOn’s hypocrisy for the Facebook attack has been well documented, but I was still surprised to get the e-mail from Eli Pariser touting the social-networking site for its 60 million members and boasting that MoveOn would be “launching several innovative Facebook projects” in 2008.

Pariser also gives MoveOn supporters the option to connect on 14 other social networks. But clearly Facebook is the destination of choice for MoveOn supporters:

MoveOn has always grown through social networks—every time we forward an email to friends and family. With Facebook’s membership doubling in size every six months, social networking sites may be the next big opportunity to reach people who want to make a progressive change in our country.

With MoveOn’s “membership” stagnant at 3.3 million, it’s certainly not surprising to see Pariser head in this direction. I’m just can’t believe it took the wunderkind so long to figure it out.