Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row
1–10 of 57 posts
Re: Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row
#2> Facebook says it will allow more websites and other online services to join its "free mobile data" Internet.org scheme.
Great, so now other few big portals like Yahoo can also be accessed for "free". And Facebook will probably let you give their site for "free"... if you pay Facebook some $. Basically it always was clever business, is, and will be. Maybe it'd be a more palatable offering if Zuckerberg was more honest, if FB didn't masquerade internet.org as Zuck's blessing to humanity.
Re: Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row
#3- No HTTPs
- FB says it will track and use the data
- FB approval process
- FB owns/gets to reuse the content
- Telco can shutdown service if app use increases
Are we doing enough to give the underprivileged access to Internet? This is not the internet, this is a f'ing monetisation channel!
Re: Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row
#4> Facebook says it will allow more websites and other online services to join its "free mobile data" Internet.org scheme. Great, so now other few big portals like Yahoo can also be accessed for "free". And Facebook will probably let you give their site for "free"... if you pay Facebook some $. Basically it always was clever business, is, and will be. Maybe it'd be a more palatable offering if Zuckerberg was more hone…
They are providing people who do not have internet with internet. They are giving people a useful service they did not have before for free. They aren't making people use the service or pay anything for it. I don't see a negative.
Re: Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row
#5- HTTPS is a premium feature not included in Internet.org's package...
- Internet services/sites are whitelisted - essentially by Facebook.
- ISP tracking is baked into consumers' access. (Like Verizon's SuperCookies, which have just been rolled back for US consumers.)
- Select developers get to develop for the web ... but based off permission from higher ups. Because we all trust Facebook as a caretaker of a dev platform... we already know there will arbitrary rate-limiting for these devs.
The best part of Facebook's story was that Zuck didn't need permission to build it. How ironic...
Facebook has hijacked the word "Internet" for this initiative.
At best this is a whitewashed and severely limited offering that works against the push for real Internet access. And it sets all of the worst kinds of precedents for first-time users across the world.
As for the PR spin around this campaign, some words that come to mind: "disingenuous", "delusional".
http://www.medianama.com/2015/05/223-facebooks-internet-org-...
Re: Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row
#6Good -- some Internet is better than no Internet, and if it takes a mountain of ads to get that to folks, so be it.
Re: Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row
#7I love to demonize big tech as much as the next guy, but I really think the public consensus in India against Internet.org is inherently biased. The catalyst for the movement was a Youtube video. The chosen method of lodging protest was via email. AIB themselves would not be the thought leaders they are today if internet access was restricted to them. Every activist has been, by definition, in a position of privilege with respect to internet access. It seems we are cautiously ignoring the situation of the millions who have not had internet penetration till date and to whom the internet is broadly synonymous with "major" services like Facebook and Wikipedia. I am not in favor of Facebook forming their own internet cartel and I think anti-trust laws should work tirelessly to prevent that. But I think if you gave the average unconnected Indian a choice between no internet on ideological principles, and free internet, but restricted to Facebook and a few other services, they would choose connectivity any day of the week
Re: Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row
#8I'm reminded of the old 'competitors' to the Internet that existed in the early 1990's. Remember Prodigy, or AoL?
Re: Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row
#9> Facebook says it will allow more websites and other online services to join its "free mobile data" Internet.org scheme. Great, so now other few big portals like Yahoo can also be accessed for "free". And Facebook will probably let you give their site for "free"... if you pay Facebook some $. Basically it always was clever business, is, and will be. Maybe it'd be a more palatable offering if Zuckerberg was more hone…
They are providing people who do not have internet with internet. They are giving people a useful service they did not have before for free. They aren't making people use the service or pay anything for it. I don't see a negative.
This is not the internet. This is facebook $\pm$ other big company's sites.
The problem is that this will not be until the real internet arrives for poor people but instead. For millions, maybe billions (potentially for the majority of the world's population) the internet could forever be only facebook/yahoo/${big corps website}...
Re: Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row
#10Good -- some Internet is better than no Internet, and if it takes a mountain of ads to get that to folks, so be it.
No this is not Internet. It is AOL v2. It could well mean that people never get any internet.