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Zuckerberg Defends 'Free Basics' App With Comparison To Hospitals, Education (indiatimes.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Facebook has been under heavy criticism for distributing its "Free Basics" app in areas of the world that have less-developed communications infrastructure. The app essentially provides free access to a limited selection of internet sites. Free Basics was recently banned in India over net neutrality concerns. Mark Zuckerberg has now published a response in the Times of India.
He says, "We have collections of free basic books. They're called libraries. They don't contain every book, but they still provide a world of good. We have free basic healthcare. Public hospitals don't offer every treatment, but they still save lives. We have free basic education. Every child deserves to go to school. And in the 21st century, everyone also deserves access to the tools and information that can help them to achieve all those other public services, and all their fundamental social and economic rights. That's why everyone also deserves access to free basic internet services."
Facebook and Internet.org are also fighting the bad publicity elsewhere online, and even in local newspapers. "In essence, Facebook is claiming that since people quickly move on from Free Basics, it's less of a threat as a restricted replacement to the neutral Internet, and is more of a stepping stone to it."
He says, "We have collections of free basic books. They're called libraries. They don't contain every book, but they still provide a world of good. We have free basic healthcare. Public hospitals don't offer every treatment, but they still save lives. We have free basic education. Every child deserves to go to school. And in the 21st century, everyone also deserves access to the tools and information that can help them to achieve all those other public services, and all their fundamental social and economic rights. That's why everyone also deserves access to free basic internet services."
Facebook and Internet.org are also fighting the bad publicity elsewhere online, and even in local newspapers. "In essence, Facebook is claiming that since people quickly move on from Free Basics, it's less of a threat as a restricted replacement to the neutral Internet, and is more of a stepping stone to it."
We have collections of free basic books. They're called libraries. They don't contain every book, but they still provide a world of good.
What Zuckerberg apparently fails to realize is that libraries don't see their users as a product, and generally don't have a vested interest in keeping their users away from the local bookstore and other non-library sanctioned locations. Because users are facebooks product, it creates a massive conflict of interest.
And libraries will also buy books if people who go to the libraries want them, without requiring the publisher to do anything. This is exactly the opposite of the 'Free Basics' stuff, where the consumer only gets things where the producer has explicitly opted in. His views on what public schools and hospitals provide is more a depressing commentary on how backwards the USA is than anything else.
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How useful is Google search when you don't have access to any of the pages it is linking to?
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Wonderful strawman.
Look, I hate FB and Zuck as much as the next Slashdotter, but in this case, the GP has it absolutely spot-on.
Facebook has offered to make a number of services available. Yes, they will take as much as they can get from the government to help pay for providing this service. And yes, the local governments can say "no thanks, we'd rather have the next Tsunami surprise us, if we can't have porn". It really does come down to that, no strawman involved: Bandwidth costs money.
When you have your hand out, do you spit at the guy who gives you five dollars instead of ten?