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Facebook Opens Internet․Org to All Developers Due to Net Neutrality Concerns

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Re: Facebook Opens Internet․Org to All Developers Due to Net Neutrality Concerns

#11
post #2

"Facebook expects partner services to be optimized for smartphones and feature phones, and be free from JavaScript or SSL/TLS/HTTPS elements" No HTTPS? Really??

My completely-uninformed guess is that they don't want people to tunnel out to the real Internet:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9203946

Although I suppose a bit of steganography is enough...

Edit: steganography, not stenography.

Re: Facebook Opens Internet․Org to All Developers Due to Net Neutrality Concerns

#12
post #4
post #2

"Facebook expects partner services to be optimized for smartphones and feature phones, and be free from JavaScript or SSL/TLS/HTTPS elements" No HTTPS? Really??

It looks to be related to the above paragraph: “Websites that require high-bandwidth will not be included. Services should not use VoIP, video, file transfer, high resolution photos, or high volume of photos.” — Facebook points out that operators are giving up resources for the project for free, so this is a limit to prevent them totally being taken to the cleaners. Perhaps HTTPS is too heavy for the large number of…

Assuming a dumb pipe, SSL is no harder on the ISP than unencrypted traffic. It's likely that they want unencrypted because the data is then easily cacheable, drastically reducing cost on network operators.

Re: Facebook Opens Internet․Org to All Developers Due to Net Neutrality Concerns

#15
post #6

Better than their first attempt but still not the real thing. If you want to give internet for free to some people there are no alternatives than paying them a full blown data connection with no artificial limits. I believe that my original comment of 2 weeks ago is still relevant: "Dear Mark, this open-to-ISP initiative is one way to look at what you're doing. Another one is closed-to-most-of-the-Internet. Let's tur…

Facebook is a business. Don't be naive. They don't care for poor people, they care about getting money. They are even obligated to do so.

Don't expect business to solve all issues for humanity, because they won't.

A government is needed to take responsability we don't want to entrust business with and to do necessary things no business wants to do, and it needs to be strong to be able to do it even if business opposes.

Re: Facebook Opens Internet․Org to All Developers Due to Net Neutrality Concerns

#16
post #2

"Facebook expects partner services to be optimized for smartphones and feature phones, and be free from JavaScript or SSL/TLS/HTTPS elements" No HTTPS? Really??

My completely-uninformed guess is that they don't want people to tunnel out to the real Internet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9203946 Although I suppose a bit of steganography is enough... Edit: steganography, not stenography.

Did you mean steganography?

Re: Facebook Opens Internet․Org to All Developers Due to Net Neutrality Concerns

#17
If it's a choice between Wikipedia and Facebook, or nothing at all, telling poor Indians they should only be allowed to have the latter seems quite cruel.

Yes, it's unfortunate they can't be given the whole Internet, but the fact they can get anything at all should be celebrated.

Re: Facebook Opens Internet․Org to All Developers Due to Net Neutrality Concerns

#18
post #12
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks to be related to the above paragraph: “Websites that require high-bandwidth will not be included. Services should not use VoIP, video, file transfer, high resolution photos, or high volume of photos.” — Facebook points out that operators are giving up resources for the project for free, so this is a limit to prevent them totally being taken to the cleaners. Perhaps HTTPS is too heavy for the large number of…

Assuming a dumb pipe, SSL is no harder on the ISP than unencrypted traffic. It's likely that they want unencrypted because the data is then easily cacheable, drastically reducing cost on network operators.

Surely for network operators the cost isn't in external connectivity, its in radio channel capacity at the edge.

Re: Facebook Opens Internet․Org to All Developers Due to Net Neutrality Concerns

#19
post #6

Better than their first attempt but still not the real thing. If you want to give internet for free to some people there are no alternatives than paying them a full blown data connection with no artificial limits. I believe that my original comment of 2 weeks ago is still relevant: "Dear Mark, this open-to-ISP initiative is one way to look at what you're doing. Another one is closed-to-most-of-the-Internet. Let's tur…

It's certainly not net neutrality but it might be more accurate to think of this as a heavily firewalled LAN; given what I know in general about the ingenuity of people in the areas that they're aiming this service at, they should expect a huge amount of tunneling, in various forms, if they attempt to restrict access in any way.
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