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How India Pierced Facebook’s Free Basics Program

35 points by enigami 11y ago

vkou 11y ago
Calling this free Internet is really giving Facebook too much credit. It was free access to a select few websites.
- RodericDay 11y ago
  The cynic in me (which is all of me) doesn't think it's an accident that it keeps getting portrayed this way. Same with a Bloomberg article the other day.
- dang 11y ago
  Ok, we changed "Free Internet" to "Free Basics" in the title above to avoid ambiguity.
- firasd 11y ago
  When this first launched in India a couple months ago, the realization of what was going on really hit me. I was already opposed to it for net neutrality reasons, but in practice the program just rolled out Facebook and a few apps without data charges to everyone, not just the unconnected, which was extra flagrant. I wrote this: https://medium.com/@firasd/facebook-s-internet-org-free-basics-zuckerberg-elides-the-facts-95001d7a0a59 https://medium.com/@firasd/facebook-s-internet-org-free-basi... Also see this: A data-driven argument on why Marc Andreessen is wrong about Free Basics https://medium.com/@sumanthr/a-data-driven-argument-on-why-marc-andreessen-is-wrong-about-free-basics-c472184b9682 https://medium.com/@sumanthr/a-data-driven-argument-on-why-m... The reporter in the main linked article couldn't find one person using Free Basics who hadn't been on the internet before.
  - throwaway60453 11y ago
    Can somebody translate the above post into English? I can't understand a single sentence.
    - firasd 11y ago
      Okay… 1) When Free Basics launched India, the problems with it turned out to be even worse than I expected. I wrote about how the local marketing (‘Free Facebook’) and Zuck’s post (‘farmers getting weather information’) had completely different messaging. 2) I pointed to another article that dove into these issues about who actually uses Free Basics. 3) The reporter who wrote the article this HN thread is about (“How India Pierced…”) couldn’t find a single person who was introduced to the internet through Free Basics. Does that help?
- jsprogrammer 11y ago
  How much cabling and how many APs could FB have deployed with the resources spent trying to propagate this program? If someone gave me free Internet, I'd probably check out their page.
koopuluri 11y ago
The domain in parens next to the title says "medium.com", but the link is actually on "https://backchannel.com/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-internet-program-6ae3f9ffd1b4#.y3rp1jv9m" https://backchannel.com/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-in.... Curious how that happened.
- sremani 11y ago
  https://backchannel.com/about https://backchannel.com/about
- plumeria 11y ago
  Run: curl -IL https://medium.com/backchannel/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-internet-program-6ae3f9ffd1b4#.r2kfhc1x1 https://medium.com/backchannel/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-... It is because of a "301 Moved Permanently" response code. The URL shows as "medium.com", because thats the URL saved in the HN database. However when you open it, your browser follows the redirect.

35 points by enigami 11y ago

vkou 11y ago

Calling this free Internet is really giving Facebook too much credit. It was free access to a select few websites.

RodericDay 11y ago
The cynic in me (which is all of me) doesn't think it's an accident that it keeps getting portrayed this way. Same with a Bloomberg article the other day.
dang 11y ago
Ok, we changed "Free Internet" to "Free Basics" in the title above to avoid ambiguity.
firasd 11y ago
When this first launched in India a couple months ago, the realization of what was going on really hit me. I was already opposed to it for net neutrality reasons, but in practice the program just rolled out Facebook and a few apps without data charges to everyone, not just the unconnected, which was extra flagrant. I wrote this: https://medium.com/@firasd/facebook-s-internet-org-free-basics-zuckerberg-elides-the-facts-95001d7a0a59 https://medium.com/@firasd/facebook-s-internet-org-free-basi... Also see this: A data-driven argument on why Marc Andreessen is wrong about Free Basics https://medium.com/@sumanthr/a-data-driven-argument-on-why-marc-andreessen-is-wrong-about-free-basics-c472184b9682 https://medium.com/@sumanthr/a-data-driven-argument-on-why-m... The reporter in the main linked article couldn't find one person using Free Basics who hadn't been on the internet before.
- throwaway60453 11y ago
  Can somebody translate the above post into English? I can't understand a single sentence.
  - firasd 11y ago
    Okay… 1) When Free Basics launched India, the problems with it turned out to be even worse than I expected. I wrote about how the local marketing (‘Free Facebook’) and Zuck’s post (‘farmers getting weather information’) had completely different messaging. 2) I pointed to another article that dove into these issues about who actually uses Free Basics. 3) The reporter who wrote the article this HN thread is about (“How India Pierced…”) couldn’t find a single person who was introduced to the internet through Free Basics. Does that help?
jsprogrammer 11y ago
How much cabling and how many APs could FB have deployed with the resources spent trying to propagate this program? If someone gave me free Internet, I'd probably check out their page.

koopuluri 11y ago

The domain in parens next to the title says "medium.com", but the link is actually on "https://backchannel.com/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-internet-program-6ae3f9ffd1b4#.y3rp1jv9m" https://backchannel.com/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-in.... Curious how that happened.

sremani 11y ago
https://backchannel.com/about https://backchannel.com/about
plumeria 11y ago
Run: curl -IL https://medium.com/backchannel/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-internet-program-6ae3f9ffd1b4#.r2kfhc1x1 https://medium.com/backchannel/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-... It is because of a "301 Moved Permanently" response code. The URL shows as "medium.com", because thats the URL saved in the HN database. However when you open it, your browser follows the redirect.