4 ms·

Facebook initiates blitzkrieg ad campaign for Free Basics in India

28 points by jace 11y ago

nileshtrivedi 11y ago
Wow! How much money has FB spent so far on advertising this "philanthropic" service?
- jace 11y ago
  One estimate said 50 crore rupees ($7.5m), another $20 million. We don't know for sure since neither Facebook nor the advertising industry association is willing to reveal actual figures.
r0h1n 11y ago
From users accidentally supporting [1] Free Basics; to Facebook asking American and Canadian users to email India's telecom regulator in "error" [2]; to even dead people supporting Free Basics [3], it's all part of Facebook's philanthropic efforts in India. [1] https://twitter.com/singersuchi/status/677734574319767552 https://twitter.com/singersuchi/status/677734574319767552 [2] https://recode.net/2015/12/21/facebook-accidentally-asks-u-s-users-to-support-free-basics-in-india/ https://recode.net/2015/12/21/facebook-accidentally-asks-u-s... [3] https://twitter.com/grondmaster/status/677797484781957120 https://twitter.com/grondmaster/status/677797484781957120 Edited: added line spacing
vinayak 11y ago
In Soviet Rus^H^H Most large corps have a dirty tricks dept, but in Capitalist USA, dirty tricks dept has FB #NetNeutrality #SaveTheInternet FB is going all out to promote it's rebranded Internet.org initiative (now named Free Basics) to capture and lock in poor user on the platform. Since it's first attempt was thwarted, they have now brought out their dirty tricks department to "influence" or (rather misinform - a better word to describe the situation) Indian citizens. It has bought out front-page ads on popular newspapers, hoarding on trafficked roads and misleading ads on FB and youtube to do a sneaky campaign to mislead people to support the initiative.
gnurag 11y ago
So, Facebook says they "fixed" the issue of showing notifications to people outside India -- How exactly would they fix this? If an email is delivered to TRAI's mailbox, it stays delivered, doesn't it?

28 points by jace 11y ago

nileshtrivedi 11y ago

Wow! How much money has FB spent so far on advertising this "philanthropic" service?

jace 11y ago
One estimate said 50 crore rupees ($7.5m), another $20 million. We don't know for sure since neither Facebook nor the advertising industry association is willing to reveal actual figures.

r0h1n 11y ago

From users accidentally supporting [1] Free Basics; to Facebook asking American and Canadian users to email India's telecom regulator in "error" [2]; to even dead people supporting Free Basics [3], it's all part of Facebook's philanthropic efforts in India. [1] https://twitter.com/singersuchi/status/677734574319767552 https://twitter.com/singersuchi/status/677734574319767552 [2] https://recode.net/2015/12/21/facebook-accidentally-asks-u-s-users-to-support-free-basics-in-india/ https://recode.net/2015/12/21/facebook-accidentally-asks-u-s... [3] https://twitter.com/grondmaster/status/677797484781957120 https://twitter.com/grondmaster/status/677797484781957120 Edited: added line spacing

vinayak 11y ago

In Soviet Rus^H^H Most large corps have a dirty tricks dept, but in Capitalist USA, dirty tricks dept has FB #NetNeutrality #SaveTheInternet FB is going all out to promote it's rebranded Internet.org initiative (now named Free Basics) to capture and lock in poor user on the platform. Since it's first attempt was thwarted, they have now brought out their dirty tricks department to "influence" or (rather misinform - a better word to describe the situation) Indian citizens. It has bought out front-page ads on popular newspapers, hoarding on trafficked roads and misleading ads on FB and youtube to do a sneaky campaign to mislead people to support the initiative.

gnurag 11y ago

So, Facebook says they "fixed" the issue of showing notifications to people outside India -- How exactly would they fix this? If an email is delivered to TRAI's mailbox, it stays delivered, doesn't it?