For the first time last week, Facebook correctly defined the northern borders of Israel. Before last Tuesday, if citizens of the Golan Heights wanted to list their hometown, they would be required to say that they lived in Syria. For example, if someone lived in Katzrin, a city in this region, they would type in Katzrin in the hometown blank on the personal information form, and the only option Facebook offered them to enter would be "Katzrin, Syria."

The small problem: Facebook was listing information that has been inaccurate for over 40 years.

The Golan Heights were annexed by Israel in 1967 as a result of the Six-Day War. Today, Jewish and Arab citizens living in the Golan Heights enjoy the same Israeli governmental services as the rest of the country, including electricity and health care.

The big problem: Facebook has become the chief networking and socializing tool across college campuses, and it is preventing users from expressing correct political points of view.

It's not even up for debate. Facebook has a monopoly over interactions on college campuses. It is the single medium that is guaranteed to be familiar to every individual on a college campus. (How many of you really know how all of the functions of your UNet account actually work?)

If it weren't for Facebook, you probably wouldn't know when elections are for Union Senate or even who was running. On the bottom of every campaign flyer is a link to the candidate's Facebook group. Brandeis students use Facebook to find out when clubs are meeting, organize hall and dorm meetings, find out when the Theater?Arts department will put on shows, and even to vote for whom Brandeis brings for concerts. During orientation, it was how I kept track of the names of all the new people I was meeting.

Facebook is an integral part of our daily lives. Recently, I was even "friended" by "Louis Brandeis," who created a Facebook page to advertise www.mycampus.com where students can go to buy and sell textbooks, organize carpools home or rent apartments.

After our time at Brandeis, we will undoubtedly begin to use Facebook to keep in touch with our college friends, and perhaps, more importantly, network for jobs. At this point in its life, Facebook has reached the magnitude where it can sometimes be an employer's first impression of a potential employee. When evaluating candidates for a job, some will comb their applicants' Facebook pages for questionable pictures, group associations or inappropriate wall posts left by friends.

For instance, imagine you are applying to work at a Jewish Agency and you list that your hometown is Katzrin, Syria. Your employer looks on your Facebook to find out more about you, only to discover you are from . Syria?

By restricting the choice of country, not only does Facebook increase the ambiguity of meaning and political viewpoints, but it also may give employers the wrong idea about what viewpoints their applications will potentially bring to their organization (although one would hope that employers are scrupulous enough to check out the facts on their applicants through resources other than Facebook).

To protect its users from scenarios such as this, Facebook is responsible for allowing its users to represent themselves accurately.

Perhaps Facebook did not intend to grow this large, but now that it has monopolized the networking and job scene, it must accommodate its users, and that means setting aside the creator's own beliefs and broadcasting only accurate facts. It should not matter that Facebook is a privately owned company. The fact of the matter is that Facebook must be held to higher standards to maintain the niche it has filled in the lives of its users.

It would be in the best interest of Facebook and its consumers to provide options that appease all political beliefs in order to fairly represent all segments of its usership.