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I think what pissed me off the most was Facebook's reaction to net neutrality. Instead of attempting to reflect and revise their free Internet service so it can

I think what pissed me off the most was Facebook's reaction to net neutrality. Instead of attempting to reflect and revise their free Internet service so it can better serve the masses, it just attempts to slander and point fingers at net neutrality advocates. Like "ooooh no! We ain't the problem for your not having "free" Internet, it's those guys those over there arguing that free access to all of Internet is better than a free access to the websites we limit you to!" Seriously Facebook, you're not fooling anyone here. As if you haven't had enough fun screwing developed countries, now you have to go pick on the poor too?

mattlutze 11y ago
It's almost beautifully murky that the folks using the app would come to think that what is offered to them is the Internet. This is a distilled example of what heavy ISP control of the Internet could look like. Getting service to disadvantaged or destitute people is great. But it's so very important that Google, Facebook, Apple, Comcast, Verizon, TWC, whomever are constrained from wanton good-will Trojan horses. The tenor and breadth with which Facebook has entered their heavy-handed lot simply illustrates that sometimes, there's nothing new under the sun. TRAI taking a very thorough, critical look at Free Basics is a good thing for the people of India.
- mtgx 11y ago
  Indeed. China would love it if they could start over and just offer a "Free Basics" version of the "Internet" to its billion citizens. It would make censorship easier by orders and orders of magnitude (basically as easy to censor as TV is over there).
- x5n1 11y ago
  Facebook is already stealing hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars worth of revenue from content creators like video makers whose videos are stolen and posted on fb's walled garden for the benefit of facebook and content pirates. i guess fb is hoping to capitalize on this trend, steal all online content in the name of providing it for the masses, and put all that ad money into its coffers. that would be longer term game with "free basics". Captive market which you can sell ads to and force content creators and their thieves to post it all to facebook.
firasd 11y ago
This is counter-productive for FB in the long run. When zero-rating hollows out net neutrality, what stops WeChat from teaming up with an ISP to undermine WhatsApp and Messenger? Imagine if MySpace had struck deals with network operators all over the world to be available without data charges and called it philanthropy.
mtgx 11y ago
What pisses me off more is when they do "evil stuff" and then say it's "just a technical error": http://trak.in/tags/business/2015/12/22/users-mails-usa-canada-users-supporting-free-basics/ http://trak.in/tags/business/2015/12/22/users-mails-usa-cana... I also deeply dislike their use of "Internet.org" - it's just shameless. How can 50 websites be anything close to the "Internet"? Eventually they kind of got the message on that, too, which is why they've renamed the service to Free Basics, but they're still using the Internet.org website to promote it.

mattlutze 11y ago

It's almost beautifully murky that the folks using the app would come to think that what is offered to them is the Internet. This is a distilled example of what heavy ISP control of the Internet could look like. Getting service to disadvantaged or destitute people is great. But it's so very important that Google, Facebook, Apple, Comcast, Verizon, TWC, whomever are constrained from wanton good-will Trojan horses. The tenor and breadth with which Facebook has entered their heavy-handed lot simply illustrates that sometimes, there's nothing new under the sun. TRAI taking a very thorough, critical look at Free Basics is a good thing for the people of India.

mtgx 11y ago
Indeed. China would love it if they could start over and just offer a "Free Basics" version of the "Internet" to its billion citizens. It would make censorship easier by orders and orders of magnitude (basically as easy to censor as TV is over there).
x5n1 11y ago
Facebook is already stealing hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars worth of revenue from content creators like video makers whose videos are stolen and posted on fb's walled garden for the benefit of facebook and content pirates. i guess fb is hoping to capitalize on this trend, steal all online content in the name of providing it for the masses, and put all that ad money into its coffers. that would be longer term game with "free basics". Captive market which you can sell ads to and force content creators and their thieves to post it all to facebook.

firasd 11y ago

This is counter-productive for FB in the long run. When zero-rating hollows out net neutrality, what stops WeChat from teaming up with an ISP to undermine WhatsApp and Messenger? Imagine if MySpace had struck deals with network operators all over the world to be available without data charges and called it philanthropy.

mtgx 11y ago

What pisses me off more is when they do "evil stuff" and then say it's "just a technical error": http://trak.in/tags/business/2015/12/22/users-mails-usa-canada-users-supporting-free-basics/ http://trak.in/tags/business/2015/12/22/users-mails-usa-cana... I also deeply dislike their use of "Internet.org" - it's just shameless. How can 50 websites be anything close to the "Internet"? Eventually they kind of got the message on that, too, which is why they've renamed the service to Free Basics, but they're still using the Internet.org website to promote it.