Facebook Busted Trying To Fake Support For Its Net Neutrality Positions In India
from the we-see-what-you-did-there dept
For much of the last year now, Facebook has been under fire in India for its "Free Basics" zero rating campaign, which exempts Facebook-approved content from carrier usage caps, purportedly to the benefit of the nation's poor. Critics however have argued that Facebook's just trying to corner developing ad markets under the banner of altruism, and giving one company so much control over what's effectively a walled garden sets a horrible precedent for a truly open Internet. Indian regulator TRAI has agreed so far, arguing that what Facebook is doing is effectively glorified collusion, and it's demanding that Facebook shut the program down until a public conversation about net neutrality can be had.Like any good giant international company, Facebook's response to this call for open and honest dialogue has been to launch a mammoth media and lobbying blitz across India. The campaign has included buying entire newspaper spreads in which Mark Zuckerberg professes to be super worried about the country's farmers, to some subtle, local advertising:
Got conned into signing the #FreeBasics petition on FB. DON'T "SCROLL DOWN TO LEARN MORE"! Signs you up immediately! pic.twitter.com/XqpyQSdUlN
— Accidenteshwari (@accidenteshwari) December 18, 2015
Being Facebook-generated form letters, TRAI points out that none of these responses appear to answer any of the questions the regulators put forth in its original call for feedback. Facebook's response, attached to the filing, is to claim that the company actually helped generate 11 million supporters of Free Basics, yet it mysteriously has no idea where these missing 9.1 million responses disappeared to. In other words, Facebook not only tried to trick its users into spamming the government, but it appears it may have lied about the overall volume of support Free Basics had.
Combined with Zuckerberg's claims that opponents of Free Basics are extremists that hate the poor, Facebook's making an excellent case for its critics who say that creating a walled garden version of the Internet in which Facebook is king is a very bad idea. A better idea? As numerous folks have suggested, how about putting all of this money being spent on Free basics, lobbying, spamming and marketing into actually updating India's lagging broadband infrastructure?
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Filed Under: free basics, india, net neutrality, trai, zero rating
Companies: facebook
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That is the biggest problem here: In pursuit of saving his business venture, he is invoking altruism as a reason to support his purpose.
It is very unethical and irresponsible to appeal to peoples emotions like that, but if you can pull the wool on enough people, you might just win the political battle...
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But more to the point: That wasn't Mike Masnick.
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DINK
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Re: DINK
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Facebook: Don't even bother pretending we're not evil.
Sometimes it really does feel that simple.
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Facebook is in decline and Free Basics is dangerously suspect. You're not a visionary zuckerberg.
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But, but , but ...
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Time to cook ...
Serve it along the Free Basics main course and let the people savour the taste of freedom, entirely free!
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(purely co-incidence that every single allowed IP address belongs to people with the exact same political beliefs as Zuckerberg, of course)....
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Facebook spamming is really no surprise
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Won't somebody please think of the children!
Facebook is first and foremost a business meaning that it's goal is (depending on your business theorist) profit or customer acquisition. If you believe the altruistic elements of their argument, that's on you. Welcome to modern global online marketing.
Furthermore, this is a perfect situation for invoking Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. Improperly implemented or thought through marketing campaigns fall into the latter, especially when you consider other Facebook official comments noting how surprised they were at public reaction.
Oh and BTW India only has 20% Internet penetration leaving 1 billion people offline. For comparison, Facebook has about 1.5 billion regular users. Pretty much any tool or service that extends Internet access to the Unconnected is good. The Unconnected in India need all the help they can get.
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Re: Won't somebody please think of the children!
Yeah, but Free Basics isn't internet access.
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Re: Re: Won't somebody please think of the children!
Free basics is not "full & free" Internet access. It provides access to limited spectrum of destinations. That said, I'll let users decide if a service of useful rather than making that determination for them.
Everytime.
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I understand that this is unacceptable for some. However, my broader point is that if Free Basics introduces people to a walled garden, those walls are low enough that people will see what's going on over the fence. If Free Basics fails to meet peoples' needs, they will look elsewhere for another service.
Connecting the Unconnected is the first priority.
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Mark Zuckerberg
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