Free Basics: Facebook’s ‘Poor Internet For Poor People’

Face book appears in a row over the technical guidelines for allowing free access to internet while promoting its own services. The row has sparked ongoing debater arguments on net neutrality and questions on providing equal opportunity to the other competitors.

The topic for debate is Free Basics- a controversial app jointly developed by Facebook and internet.org that allows data access for free. The debate has turned to hot on the allegation of offering the free data access only to a limited section of net users.

Facebook has launched Internet.org in collaboration with several major telecoms to connect the billions of people still remaining out of web network. Through the launching, the social media site aims to bring people online both by making access affordable with partnerships and data efficiency, and receiving signal to remote areas with futuristic technologies like drones, lasers, and satellites.

While the app starts to get initiated, many has pointed the potential long-term benefits for Facebook of being people’s first experience with the Internet or even becoming mixed up with their whole conception of ‘the Internet’. If Facebook paves the road to access, its service could become users’ premier destination, suspect the net neutrality advocates.

But Face book has faced immense criticism for controlling free access and not offering competitors such as Twitter while masquerading as the Internet itself. ‘Free Basics’ is available in roughly 35 countries through Face book’s partnerships with mobile carriers. However, the partners under agreement consider it as a mean to persuade people to buy data plans.

Facebook is claiming that since people quickly move on from Free Basics, so it can’t be a threat for the neutral Internet as feared by the naysayers. Since the future of information access is on the line, however many are worried about Facebook’s motives behind going to such lengths to connect the world.

Critics such as net neutrality advocates and ‘Free Basics’ opponents, both have termed the app as ‘poor internet for poor people’. Their point of argument is internet.org’s limited free access violates net neutrality since majority of the net users remain out of its offered facility. Moreover, Facebook imposed ban on JavaScript and flash hinders developer’s ability to build highly interactive new free basic apps capable of competing with its products.