Centre for Internet & Society

In this essay—written in April 2016 soon after India's Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) upheld net neutrality and effectively banned Free Basics in India— the author uses development theories to study the Free Basics programme. The author explored three key paradigms: 1) Construction of knowledge, power structures and virtual colonization in the Free Basics Programme, (2) A sub-internet of the marginalized and (3) the Capabilities Approach and explored how the programme reinforces levels of digital inequalities as opposed to reducing it. This essay was written in 2016 and there have been various shifts in the digital and tech landscape. Further a lot of numbers and statistics are from 2016 and not all ideas held here may be transferable today. This should be read as such. This is being published now, on account of 10 years since the Free Basics project was set to be implemented in India.

In 2015, Facebook introduced internet.org in India and it faced a lot of criticism. The programme was relaunched  as the Free Basics programme, ostensibly to provide, free of cost, access to the Internet to the economically  deprived section of society. The content, i.e. websites, were pre-selected  by Facebook and was provided by third-party providers. Later, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) ruled in favor of net neutrality, banning the program in India. A crucial conversation in this debate was also about whether the Free Basics program was going to actually be helpful for those it set out to support.

This paper examines Facebook’s Free Basics programme and its perceived role in bridging digital divides, in the context of India, where it has been widely debated, criticized and finally banned in a ruling from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). While the debate on the Free Basics programme has largely been embroiled around the principles of network neutrality, this paper will try to examine it from an ICT4D perspective, embedding the discussion around key development paradigms.

This essay begins by introducing the Free Basics programme in India and the associated proceedings, following which existing literature is reviewed to explore the concept of development, the perceived role of  ICT in development, thus laying the scope of this discussion. The essay then examines the question of whether the  Free Basics programme reduces or reinforces digital inequality by looking at 3 development paradigms: (1) Construction of knowledge, power structures and virtual colonization in the Free Basics Programme, (2) A sub-internet of the marginalized: looking at second level digital divides  and (3) the Capabilities Approach and premise of connectivity as a source of equality and freedom.

The essay concludes with a view that the need for  digital access should be viewed as a subset of overall contextual development as opposed to programs unto  themselves and taking purely techno-solutionist approaches. There is a requirement for effective needs  identification as part of ICT4D research to locate the users at the center and not at the periphery of the  discussions. Lastly, policymakers should look into the addressal of more basic concerns like that of access and connectivity and not just on solutions which can be claimed as “quick-wins” in policy implementation.


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