This new door slam he will snowball? After being suspended in India, Free Basics Facebook application also has been shunned by the Egyptian authorities. According to Reuters , the latter did not renew the authorization necessary to offer this service, which was launched two months ago in the country. According to an anonymous source quoted by the agency, the suspension would not be related to “security issues” – in reference to the important role of social media in the Egyptian revolution of 2011. But ignore, for now, the reasons for this decision.
Driven by Facebook, Free Basics aims to provide Internet access to people in developing countries who lack access often lack of means. The project, initially launched in 2013 under the name “Internet.org” was renamed “Free Basics by Facebook” last September. As the name suggests, aims to provide, via a mobile app, a range of free Internet services in the areas of health, employment, or local information (like the weather for example). Targeting in particular the Africa, Latin America and Asia, Free Basics is available in 37 countries through partnerships with local telecom operators.
Accusations of favoritism
Presented as a philanthropic activity by Mark Zuckerberg – “Connectivity is a human right” , repeats the pattern of the social network to promote her platform – the initiative wipes for several months flocks of criticism. In India, the same service is temporarily suspended since Dec. 23. This decision emanates from the telecom policeman, who asked Reliance Communications, the operator offers Free Basics, to stop offering it.
It should be said that in India, Free Basics raises questions on its compliance with net neutrality. This principle ensures, for all, equal treatment of all data exchanged on the Internet. But Basics of Free India, it is decided that Facebook services available, even in favor certain. Thus, there are a light version of social network or access to Bing search engine. But Google Search and YouTube are paying hand. Waiting to give the green light to Free Basics, or on the contrary, definitively slip him a stick in the wheel, the Indian telecoms watchdog has launched a public consultation on this subject, which ended Wednesday.
Intense lobbying Facebook
Besides compliance with net neutrality, critics accuse Facebook of using Free Basics to magnify its base of subscribers cheaply, playing good Samaritan. Faced with these criticisms, the American mastodon has put the dishes in the large. In the wake of the suspension of Free Basics, he multiplied the advertisements in the press to defend her baby.
Better, Zuckerberg himself has cracked a long article in the column Time of India . Dubbed “Free Basics protects net neutrality” , it considers that in today’s world, “everybody must have free access to Internet based services” . The head of Facebook Free Basics thus seen as an indispensable lever to create jobs and reduce poverty. Thus, “who can be against that? “, he loose. In response to all sites and applications may not be available or free, he replies through several comparisons. Among them, he cites libraries that “does not contain all of the books” existing, but provide still an essential service.
A threat to democracy?
A pitch sweep as many defenders of Internet freedom. Including the influential journalist-entrepreneur Nikhil Pahwa. Also published in a forum in the Time of India at the same time as that of Mark Zuckerberg, he knock out Free Basics. In his eyes, it could “hurt Indian democracy” . From an economic point of view, it considers in particular that the app could particularly harm the ecosystem of startups, if access to certain services should be subject to discrimination.
Facebook, the stakes are high: India is around 400 million Internet users, and according to Nikhil Pahwa, it should count 500 million by 2017. It is therefore a key market. Especially if Free Basics had to suffer a setback, other countries might possibly be tempted to do the same.
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