I contacted Facebook to gain a better understanding of the clause and its addition into the service's terms. At this point, you may be expecting a drawn-out battle between two opposing sides. That expectation is about to be squashed.

The addition of the "embargo" clause was a matter of legal protection, a Facebook representative tells me. The network's intent, he assures, was never to prevent users like Mehdi Rifai and Anwar Dafa-Alla from keeping in touch with their family and friends. As such, the company is clarifying its position.

"To be in compliance with U.S. law, we need to prohibit commercial activities from embargoed countries," explains Facebook spokesperson Barry Schnitt. "We have allowed, and plan to continue to allow, users to set up accounts from those countries and communicate, as long as they are not engaging in commercial activities on the site."

It's worth noting that other online services with social components -- , , and , for example -- also have qualifications in their terms to address international laws surrounding imports and exports. The language used, however, is often in legalese and may consequently go unnoticed to the untrained eye.