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"The International bank HSBC has reversed its policy and has refunded student customers as a direct result of a student campaign on Facebook.\nWith the plans to charge graduating students 9.9% APR on their overdrafts, many students were infuriated with the bank's decision, stating that having a free overdraft to help them establish themselves with graduation and finding a job was the reason they signed on with HSBC in the first place.  The National Union of Students has initiated a campaign on Facebook, threatening to boycott HSBC, and the bank listened.  Interest charges for overdrafts up to \u00A31,500 have been frozen, and any interest charged for the month of August will be refunded to students.  \nThis example shows the powerful influence of popular social networks, as the NUS claims it would not have been able to rally up so many students over the summer had it not been for Facebook.  One must wonder if this would have been as effective on MySpace?  Could this be effective for larger institutions, and will we continue to see social networking leveraged for the promotion of particular causes?  Sites like Razoo already take advantage of Facebook's larger network, creating a Facebook application to spread awareness for worthy causes, and this is a growing sector that will only continue to gain more traction.  See more for how YouTube  and MySpace  do affect the masses.\n[via  BBC news]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2007/08/31/facebook-campaign-bank-reverse-charges/>