If you’re an avid Facebooker, you’ve probably come across the term Free Basics. You probably got a message from someone on your friend list asking you to support it or saw several friends supporting a petition to “Save Free Basics”, which looks like this:
What is Free Basics telling us to do?
“Free Basics is a first step in connecting 1 billion Indians to the opportunities online, and achieving digital equality in India. But without your support, it could be banned in a matter of weeks,” says the Facebook Free Basics page. You are to send a message to the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority) with the following message that is pre-typed for you:
“I support digital equality for India. Free Basics provides free access to essential Internet services, such as communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming information and more. It helps those who can’t afford to pay for data, or who need a little help with getting started online. And it’s open to all people, developers and mobile networks. With 1 billion Indian people not yet connected, shutting down Free Basics would hurt our country’s most vulnerable people. I support Free Basics and digital equality for India.”
Couched in these terms of course this appears a wonderful concept that we all want to and will willingly support. But here’s why you shouldn’t support it; as one Twitter user put it:
Free Basics violates #NetNeutrality
Free Basics is another name for Internet.org and is another in a long list of insidious attempts to defeat net neutrality. Internet.org is a partnership between Facebook and Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Opera Software, Nokia and Qualcomm designed to favor Facebook over its rivals. In other words, if you get Facebook free, why would pay for other similar services. Let’s get this clear; Internet.org is simply rebranded as Free Basics and now has more acceptable nomenclature. So if you send that email that Facebook so helpfully typed out for you, you are expressing your support for internet.org and voting against net neutrality.
(Image Source)
Net Neutrality requires all internet service providers (ISP) to treat all web traffic the same way, to permit all sites to load at the same speed on their networks without favor. This way your ISP does not have the option of favoring certain website to the detriment of others. The ISP doesn’t have the option of promoting X website by making subscribers pay extra to excess Y and Z and thereby manipulating traffic to various websites (X loading faster; Y and Z exasperatingly slow, for instance). It is easy to see how bigger corporations can use this to suit their needs by tying up with and paying ISPs; and how smaller businesses who cannot afford to do this, may suffer.
Facebook is very clever and Free Basics is a better sounding, but as sinister attempt at defeating Net Neutrality. Don’t get taken in.
Author: Reena Daruwalla
