So the
breaking news in the Indian world of Internet is Free Basics by Facebook. Is it
actually what it sounds like or is there a catch? Well, Free Basics is an
initiative of Internet.org which got into news after Mr. Modi met in his much talked
about meet with Mr. Zuckerberg in Silicon Valley on 27 September 2015.
Internet.org is
a partnership between social networking services company Facebook and
six companies (Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Opera
Software, Nokia and Qualcomm) that aims on bringing economical accessibility
to selected Internet services to less developed countries by increasing
efficiency, and facilitating the development of new business models around the
provision of Internet access. But Facebook faced a lot of criticism from some
quarters of India and hence the free Internet platform got renamed to Free
Basics by Facebook. After all, adding the term ‘free’ to any service does make
it lucrative right?
Free Basics
is being promoted heavily across various platforms in India (The rough estimate
for endorsing this has been around 100 crores). It is a mix of Internet
applications that are packaged together by Reliance Communications in
India and given free only to its users. Read about it here.Their
idea being giving people access to few free basic services offered by Internet and
making them understand the value of the Internet. This app and web platform provides access to
over 250 services. It is now live in 19 countries including India and will be
part of the “larger objectives” of Internet.org. It also offers an open
platform to developers and coders who can add their apps on the platform
provided they meet the technical criteria. This
all sounds efficient for the people who aren’t able to access the Internet and
techies who are looking for such opportunities. But how beneficial this service
really is?
My question
is what is the real motive behind this move? Why can’t the government offer a
free and neutral service to its citizens who really need it? What are the other
solutions of taking poor and people in need to online platforms? Is there a
different way to connect India without Free Basics?(Click Here For More) How
will the Internet property remain public and free? Why is this being routed
through Facebook? How will the offline population come online? Which companies
will help in this movement? How will they get benefited?
Many people
who are opposing this move are saying that big sites aren’t a part of this
movement. Yes, I choose to call this service a movement because that’s how it is
being project subtly in heads of people who are made to think that this will
change their lives. The results depend on time but according to what’s been
shown and projected by Facebook, this sounds like a good deal, again, only for
those who can’t access basic services on the Internet.
According
to Facebook, many big sites are participants of Free Basics like India Today,
Network 18, Accuweather, BBC, Bing and literally hundreds more around the globe.
About the privacy concerns, they do not keep any customer personally
identifiable information (PII) past 90 days. To make this clearer, you can go
through the list of sites which are available in Free Basics program. And
according to Reliance, services can be removed or added time to time.
More than
half of the sites mentioned are nowhere close to our knowledge. For those who
understand the Internet language, only two of India’s top sites as ranked by
Alexa are there is this package. One of them being Facebook itself and another
one is Wikipedia. So there’s no Google, no Youtube, no Twitter, No Amazon, no
LinkedIn, no IRCTC, no Makemytrip and the list goes on. So when it comes to
basics of Indian internet, this movement doesn’t seem very beneficial. There’s
no Google! How can they even call it Free Basics without Google! Now that’s the
beauty of words which is clearly being misused by Facebook.
Facebook
says that Free Basics program is is growing and popular in 36 countries. What
it forgets to mention that the more online-progressive countries like Japan,
Norway, Finland, Estonia and Netherlands have outright banned programs such as
Free Basics.
Tim
Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, says that consumers should say
no to initiatives such as Free Basics (formerly Internet.org), and
added that if something that is being offered in the name of the Internet and
isn't the full Internet, then it's not really free and public.
By the way,
Free Basics isn’t the only program launched to connect people to the Internet
(read as limited internet). For example, in India, Aircel has begun providing
full internet access for free at 64 kbps download speed for the first three
months. Facebook could sponsor and expand that.
Schemes
such as Gigato offer data for free for surfing some sites. The Mozilla
Foundation runs two programs for free and neutral Internet access. Facebook
could work with them. In Bangladesh, Grameenphone users get free data in
exchange for watching an advertisement. In Africa, Orange users get 500 MB of
free access on buying a $37 handset.
There are
many ways to connect people but offering them a restricted space on Internet
and then calling it as the best bridge to a full internet is a way of fooling
people. It is a way of not introducing Google to those people which happens to
be the biggest competitor of Facebook. The way with which Facebook is trying to
make people support Free Basics cannot be ignored. It is fooling them by not
stating the facts and figures clearly? Unfortunately, I happen to be a part of
the group too when unknowingly I sent email to TRAI by only reading terms as
Net Neutrality. After sending the mail, I realised that I had supported Free
Basics. Like me there are so many others who unintentionally supported Free
Basics. Told you, the beauty of words! Reports also show that Facebook is
trying to get users in US to send emails to TRAI. If it’s true, it’s a really
cheap move taken by them.
Facebook is
neither achieving Net Neutrality nor it is supporting digital equality.
Here’s what
SaveTheInternet.in had to say about all this:
“There are
several ways other than zero-rating and differential pricing to bring internet
access to millions of Indians who hitherto cannot access internet due to high
data costs…Here it is important to note that some telecom service providers and
Facebook have misled people to believe that there is no other way but to resort
to differential pricing and zero rating to expand internet access…”
So the
battle will go on for some time because India as a united nation wants a free
and public internet. We want the people from rural India to come online and
benefit from the services which Internet offers but we aren’t ready to get
fooled by superlative language which only misguides us.
Ankita Kureel
PGP MarComm
ankita.kureel@northpointindia.com
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