Skip to main content

Free Basics Vs Net Neutrality: Mark Zuckerberg Fuels Debate in India


Free Basics Vs Net Neutrality: Mark Zuckerberg Fuels Debate in India
Facebook rechristened its free internet platform internet.org, which it developed in conjunction with Reliance Communications Network as Free Basics in September.
NEW DELHI:  First splashy full page ads in major Indian newspapers and now a personal piece by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a leading English daily defending Free Basics, the war over "free" or "selective" internet services for the poor and net neutrality has entered a new phase.

"Free Basics should stay to help achieve digital equality for India. Free Basics is a bridge to the full internet and digital equality... There's no valid basis for denying people the choice to use Free Basics, and that's what thousands of people across India have chosen to tell the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) over the last few weeks," Mr Zuckerberg wrote in a leading English daily, defending his ambitious initiative to provide a pre-selected suite of internet services to those who can't afford it.

Nikhil Pahwa, a volunteer with savetheinternet.in, wrote a counterpoint in the same daily against Mr Zuckerberg's appeal to save Free Basics.

"Why has Facebook chosen the current model for Free Basics, which gives users a selection of around a hundred sites (including a personal blog and a real estate company homepage, while rejecting the option of giving the poor free access to the open, plural and diverse web," he asked the Facebook founder.

Users who log on to their Facebook accounts are greeted with a message: "Act Now to Save Free Basics in India. Send a message to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and tell them you support Free Basics in India."

Some users are even receiving "notifications" from friends about "sending messages to TRAI about Free Basics."

According to Mr Pahwa, India is expected to have 500 million internet users by the end of 2017.

"What kind of an internet they get access to is important for our country. This is why the battle for Net Neutrality, with the last and current TRAI consultations included, is the battle for our Internet Freedom," he wrote.

TRAI has announced a Wednesday deadline for public's response on Free Basics while people can go to the online portal savetheinternet.in to register support for net neutrality.

Free Basics is an app that gives users selective access to services like communication, healthcare, education, job listings and farming information -- all without data charges.

On the other hand, "net neutrality" means that governments and internet service providers treat all data on the internet equally and, therefore, not differentially charge users, content, platforms, sites, applications or mode of communication.

Facebook rechristened its free internet platform internet.org, which it developed in conjunction with Reliance Communications Network as Free Basics in September.

Mr Zuckerberg reiterated India's importance as a market for Facebook and said nearly 250 million of the targeted next billion will come from India.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How ad-free subscriptions could solve Facebook

At the core of Facebook’s “well-being” problem is that its business is directly coupled with total time spent on its apps. The more hours you pass on the social network, the more ads you see and click, the more money it earns. That puts its plan to make using Facebook healthier at odds with its finances, restricting how far it’s willing to go to protect us from the harms of over use. The advertising-supported model comes with some big benefits, though. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that “We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.” Ads lets Facebook remain free for those who don’t want to pay, and more importantly, for those around the world who couldn’t afford to. Ads pay for Facebook to keep the lights on, research and develop new technologies, and profit handsomely in a way that attracts top talent and further investment. More affluent users with more buying power in markets like the US, UK, and Canada command higher ad prices, effectively...

Engineering against all odds, or how NYC’s subway will get wireless in the tunnels

Never ask a wireless engineer working on the NYC subway system “What can go wrong?” Flooding, ice, brake dust, and power outages relentlessly attack the network components. Rats — many, many rats — can eat power and fiber optic cables and bring down the whole system. Humans are no different, as their curiosity or malice strikes a blow against wireless hardware (literally and metaphorically). Serverless software deployment to the cloud, this is not. New York City officially got wireless service in every underground subway station a little more than a year ago, and I was curious what work went into the buildout of this system as well as how it will expand in the future. That curiosity is part of a series of articles I’ve written on an observed pattern known as cost disease, the massively inflating costs of basic human services like health care, housing, infrastructure, and education. The United States spends trillions of dollars on each of these fields, massively outspending sim...

South Korea aims for startup gold

Back in 2011, when South Korea won its longshot bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, the country wasn’t widely recognized as a destination for ski and snow lovers. It wasn’t considered much of a tech startup hub either. Fast forward seven years and a lot has changed. For the next 10 days, the eyes of the world will be on the snowy slopes of PyeongChang. Meanwhile, a couple of hours away in Seoul, a burgeoning startup scene is seeing investments multiply, generating exits and even creating a unicorn or two. While South Korea doesn’t get a perfect score as a startup innovation hub, it has established itself as a serious contender. More than half a billion dollars annually has gone to seed through late-stage funding rounds for the past few years. During that time, at least two companies, e-commerce company Coupang and mobile-focused content and commerce company Yello Mobile, have established multi-billion-dollar valuations. To provide a broader picture of how South Korea stacks ...

Trump cites Facebook exec’s comments downplaying Russian ad influence on election

You’d be forgiven for missing Donald Trump’s multiple retweets of Facebook executive Rob Goldman over the weekend. Perhaps you were spending time with family, watching Black Panther or just attempting to forget politics for a moment by ignoring the manic flurry of social media updates from the leader of the free world. But in amongst a deluge of tweets that blamed Democrats for failing to preserve DACA, called out the FBI over the recent school shooting in Florida on the FBI and affectionately referred to a member of congress as “Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control,” the President cited Facebook’s VP of Ads as evidence against claims that his campaign colluded with Russia. “The Fake News Media never fails,” Trump tweeted over the weekend. “Hard to ignore this fact from the Vice President of Facebook Ads, Rob Goldman!” Trump was citing Goldman’s own Twitter dump over the past week, responding to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s recent indictment of 13 Russian...

3D printing company New Matter is shutting down this month

Perhaps 2014 wasn’t the ideal time to get into the 3D printing game. After years of hype, the even the biggest names have been struggling to stay afloat. Pasadena startup New Matter is joining the growing list of companies who’ve unsuccessfully made a go at it, announcing that it will be closing up shop by the end of the month. It’s not for lacking of trying — and the company’s MOD-t printer was met with decent reviews when it launched in 2016. In his writeup, John praised the pricing ($300 or $400, depending on where you picked one up) and ease of use, though added cautiously, “you get what you pay for.” Initially funded on Indiegogo, the company went back to the crowdfunding well last year, this time taking to Kickstarter to pay for a Model 2. The project managed to exceed its goal in five days, but New Matter still pulled the plug. The company says it ultimately wanted to go back to the drawing board. “We have always strived to listen closely to our customers’ feedback, and...