News Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg makes renewed pitch for Free Basics service

Technoglitch

Core Member
While Free Basics allows users to access a small number of Web services without charge, it has been criticised by some for alleged violation of the principle of net neutrality, a concept that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.

“We believe that connectivity is a human right and that getting connectivity for the world is one of the fundamental challenges of our generation. When people are connected, we can accomplish some pretty amazing things.

“We can get closer to the people that we care about, we can get access to new jobs and opportunities and ideas. We can receive education and healthcare and communication and access to new services,” he said in the video post.

He said connectivity can’t just be a privilege for some of the rich and powerful and needs to be something that everyone shares and an opportunity for everyone. “I hope you will join us in doing this.”

Keen to tap the world’s largest offline population, Zuckerberg in an opinion piece in the daily compared Free Basics to a librarywhich houses only a selection of books as well as to public healthcare and education.

“Everyone also deserves access to the tools and information that can help them to achieve all those other public services, and all their fundamental social and economic rights. That’s why everyone also deserves access to free basic Internet services,” he wrote.

Critics, however, said Free Basics violates the principal of net neutrality by offering some services for free, giving them an advantage over competitors. Also, Facebook acts as a gatekeeper for Free Basics, permitting some services, while rejecting others.

Telecom regulator TRAI has already asked Reliance Communications, Facebook’s Free Basics partner in India, to suspend the services temporarily.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg makes renewed pitch for Free Basics service | The Financial Express
 

Technoglitch

Core Member
Here’s why this isn’t the first time ‘free’ internet is offered!

You’d probably remember a decade ago, there were several services that have offered free internet. The most readily available is Wikipedia. And it’s interesting how the world didn’t go hammer and tongs about how evil Wikipedia was. Wikipedia is the primary source of information for most of the online population. Purists may ridicule it for being unverified, but simply put; it’s the best of what connected intelligence can offer. It’s the best that can be gotten for the cheapest. Mobile operator Aircel has even offered free internet to new users. Idea has a popular campaign of being able to share internet plans with another user. What an idea, we’d say, at the risk of using their buzzword from the marketing campaign they’re running.

Purists, activists clearly don’t have a problem with the word free. If it genuinely results in the furtherance of information and the betterment of society, and grants access to those who aren’t privileged, then there is absolute support and adoption. Even Google for that matter, is working on free internet with Project Loon and its free Wi-Fi project for railway stations spread across India. Citizens welcomed it.

What suddenly changed when Facebook embarked on a free internet project?

The problem with Facebook is that a large corporation is now on the verge of influencing policy. And the large corporation has inroads into our lives. We aren’t even touching on the freedom part here, but the influence goes all the way to the structure of your phone bills. Or the way you pay for data. To many, that seems unfair. It’s like a bunch of animation characters appearing on TV, suddenly influence your kids to buy a code to watch cartoons on TV. They’re innocent, they’re enjoyable. But suddenly influencing the way you spend your money, and you aren’t happy about it. And of course, even the underprivileged kids in the rich and poor countries across the globe deserve to have access to their favourite cartoons. But it’s a question of priority. May be skill development is of greater importance than watching animation. If that’s easier to understand, why isn’t a barebones internet so difficult to understand?

Free Basics: No one has excelled in life by wasting time on Facebook – Tech2
 
Top