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This App Lets You Piggyback Facebook's Free Internet To Access Any Site

Posted by timothy on from the bits-is-bits dept.

sarahnaomi writes In countries like Zambia, Tanzania, or Kenya, where very few have access to the Internet, Facebook is bringing its own version of the net: Internet.org, an app that gives mobile users free access to certain sites such as Google, Wikipedia and, of course, Facebook. While the initiative has clearly positive goals, it's also been criticized as an "imperialistic" push for Facebook colonies, where novice Internet.org users will grow up thinking their restricted version of the web is the real internet. To fight against that possibility, a 20-year-old developer from Paraguay is working on an app that tunnels the "regular" internet through Facebook Messenger, one of the services free to use on Internet.org's app. This allows Internet.org users to establish a link to the outside, unrestricted internet, circumventing restrictions.

2 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Thereby allowing facebook MITM attacks. by sherr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No, there's no reason that you couldn't tunnel an encrypted (SSL) connection.

  2. Isn't Google basically the Internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How do you have access to Google and not the rest of the Internet through that? Do you just get Google's apps (minus search)?