9 years ago
3
Internet.org Is Not Neutral, Not Secure, and Not the Internet
Facebook's Internet.org project, which offers people from developing countries free mobile access to selected websites, has been pitched as a philanthropic initiative to connect two thirds of the world who don’t yet have Internet access. We completely agree that the global digital divide should be closed. However, we question whether this is the right way to do it.
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So this is the first time I've heard a good argument against this. I am a US citizen living in a third world country and I can tell you that the people would be THRILLED to have free access to facebook, wikipedia, etc. The argument that it's not an open internet to me is invalid because it is free! It is a service that facebook is providing to people to have more active accounts. And not just that they are also providing other websites for free as well, including wikipedia.... If people want to pay to have internet then I agree it should be open. But the argument that this service is extremely vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks obviously is a concern that will have to be figured out.
I see your point, but once big business figures out how to use this "do good" concept for their own benefit, I can tell you it will get a lot more complicated and loop infested. Right now it may feel like they are doing a good thing for free, but really... define free.
Honestly I've always thought it was a bad idea.