The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 21 to 31.
Free Basics: Negating net parity
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/deccan-herald-january-3-2016-sunil-abraham-free-basics-negating-net-parity
<b>Researchers funded by Facebook were apparently told by 92 per cent of Indians they surveyed from large cities, with Internet connection and college degree, that the Internet “is a human right and that Free Basics can help bring Internet to all of India.” What a strange way to frame the question given that the Internet is not a human right in most jurisdictions.
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.deccanherald.com/content/520860/free-basics-negating-net-parity.html">Deccan Herald</a> on January 3, 2016.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Free Basics is gratis service offered by Facebook in partnership with telcos in 37 countries. It is a mobile app that features less than a 100 of the 1 billion odd websites that are currently available on the WWW which in turn is only a sub-set of the Internet. Free Basics violates Net Neutrality because it introduces an unnecessary gatekeeper who gets to decide on “who is in” and “who is out”. Services like Free Basics could permanently alienate the poor from the full choice of the Internet because it creates price discrimination hurdles that discourage those who want to leave the walled garden.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Inika Charles and Arhant Madhyala, two interns at Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), surveyed 1/100th of the Facebook sample, that is, 30 persons with the very same question at a café near our office in Bengaluru. Seventy per cent agreed with Facebook that the Internet was a human right but only 26 per cent thought Free Basics would achieve universal connectivity. My real point here is that numbers don’t matter. At least not in the typical way they do. Facebook dismissed Amba Kak’s independent, unfunded, qualitative research in Delhi, in their second public rebuttal, saying the sample size was only 20.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">That was truly ironical. The whole point of her research was the importance of small numbers. Kak says, “For some, it was the idea of an ‘emergency’ which made all-access plans valuable.” A respondent stated: “But maybe once or twice a month, I need some information which only Google can give me... like the other day my sister needed to know results to her entrance exams.” If you consider that too mundane, take a moment to picture yourself stranded in the recent Chennai flood. The statistical rarity of a Black Swan does not reduce its importance. A more neutral network is usually a more resilient network. When we do have our next national disaster, do we want to be one of the few countries on the planet who, thanks to our flawed regulation, have ended up with a splinternet?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman R S Sharma rightly expressed some scepticism around numbers when he said “the consultation paper is not an opinion poll.” He elaborated: “The issue here is some sites are being offered to one person free of cost while another is paying for it. Is this a good thing and can operators have such powers?” Had he instead asked “Is this the best option?” my answer would be “no”. Given the way he has formulated the question, our answer is a lawyerly “it depends”. The CIS believes that differential pricing should be prohibited. However, it can be allowed under certain exceptional standards when it is done in a manner that can be justified by the regulator against four axes of sometimes orthogonal policy objectives. They are increased access, enhanced competition, increased user choice and contribution to openness. For example, a permanent ban on Free Basics makes sense in the Netherlands but regulation may be sufficient for India.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Gatekeeping powers</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To the second and more important part to Trai chairman’s second question on gatekeeping powers of operators, our answer is a simple “no”. But then, do we have any evidence that gatekeeping powers have been abused to the detriment of consumer and public interest? No. What do we do when we cannot, like Russell’s chicken, use induction to explain our future? Prof Simon Wren-Lew says, “If Bertrand Russell’s chicken had been an economist ...(it would have)... asked a crucial additional question: Why is the farmer doing this? What is in it for him?” There were five serious problems with Free Basics that Facebook has at least partially fixed, thanks mostly to criticism from consumers in India and Brazil. One, exclusivity with access provider; two, exclusivity with a set of web services; three, lack of transparency regarding retention of personal information; four, misrepresentation through the name of the service, Internet.org and five, lack of support for encrypted traffic. But how do we know these problems will stay fixed? Emerging markets guru Jan Chipchase tweeted asking “Do you trust Facebook? Today? Tomorrow? When its share price is under pressure and it wants to wring more $$$ from the platform?”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Zero. Facebook pays telecom operators zero. The operators pay Facebook zero. The consumers pay zero. Why do we need to regulate philanthropy? Because these freebies are not purely the fruit of private capital. They are only possible thanks to an artificial state-supported oligopoly dependent on public resources like spectrum and wires (over and under public property). Therefore, these oligopolies much serve the public interest and also ensure that users are treated in a non-discriminatory fashion.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Also provision of a free service should not allow powerful corporations to escape regulation–in jurisdictions like Brazil it is clear that Facebook has to comply with consumer protection law even if users are not paying for the service. Given that big data is the new oil, Facebook could pay the access provider in advertisements or manipulation of public discourse or by tweaking software defaults such as autoplay for videos which could increase bills of paying consumers quite dramatically.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India needs a Net Neutrality regime that allows for business models and technological innovation as long as they don’t discriminate between users and competitors. The Trai should begin regulation based on principles as it has rightly done with the pre-emptive temporary ban. But there is a need to bring “numbers we can trust” to the regulatory debate. We as citizens need to establish a peer-to-peer Internet monitoring infrastructure across mobile and fixed lines in India that we can use to crowd source data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(The writer is Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru. He says CIS receives about $200,000 a year from WMF, the organisation behind Wikipedia, a site featured in Free Basics and zero-rated by many access providers across the world)</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/deccan-herald-january-3-2016-sunil-abraham-free-basics-negating-net-parity'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/deccan-herald-january-3-2016-sunil-abraham-free-basics-negating-net-parity</a>
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No publishersunilFree BasicsNet NeutralityInternet Governance2016-01-03T05:58:00ZBlog EntryZuckerberg's India Backlash Imperils Free Global Web Vision
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-bhuma-shrivastava-january-4-2016-zuckerberg-india-backlash-imperils-free-global-web-vision
<b>When Facebook's co-founder proposed bringing free Web services to India, his stated aim was to help connect millions of impoverished people to unlimited opportunity. Instead, critics have accused him of making a poorly disguised land grab in India's burgeoning Internet sector. The growing backlash could threaten the very premise of Internet.org, his ambitious, two-year-old effort to connect the planet.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The blog post by Bhuma Shrivastava was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/foreign-media-on-zuckerbergs-india-backlash-1260732">published by NDTV</a> on January 4, 2016. Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Indian authorities are circumspect because the Facebook initiative provides access to only a limited set of websites -- undermining the equal-access precepts of net neutrality. The telecommunications regulator is calling for initial comments by Jan 7, extending the deadline from today, on whether wireless carriers can charge differently for data usage across websites, applications and platforms.<br /><br /> Losing this fight could imperil Facebook's Free Basics, which allows customers to access the social network and select services such as Messenger and Microsoft's Bing without a data plan.<br /><br />"The India fight is helping shape debates elsewhere," said Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bangalore-based non-profit advocacy group. "Activists in other countries such as Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia are watching this debate and will seize the momentum created in India."<br /><br /> Zuckerberg's argument for free Web access is based in part on Deloitte research showing that for every 10 people who are connected to the Web, one is lifted out of poverty and one job is created.<br /><br /> Facebook argues that by giving people free access to a small slice of the Internet, they will quickly see the value in paying for the whole thing. Zuckerberg has said his biggest challenge in connecting people to the Web isn't access to cellular networks, but a social hurdle: he needs to prove to people who have never been online that the Internet is useful.<br /><br /> "Who could possibly be against this?" Zuckerberg wrote in an impassioned op-ed in the Times of India this week. "Surprisingly, over the last year there's been a big debate about this in India."<br /><br /> Zuckerberg's pleas underscore what's at stake. Facebook already attracts 1.55 billion people monthly, or about half of the Internet-connected global population. To keep growing, the world's largest social network needs to get more people online. Hence the billions of dollars Facebook is spending on projects to deliver the Web to under-served areas via drones, satellites and lasers. And Internet.org, which now spans 37 nations.<br /><br /> India, as the world's second most populous nation, is arguably the most important piece of Zuckerberg's Free Basics strategy. But the opposition is fierce. Critics note that the Facebook service doesn't offer Web favorites such as Google's search. Facebook has said it would be open to adding more features from competitors, but critics are skeptical of giving the social-networking giant such influence on the Internet.<br /><br /> Critics also say that by offering a limited swath of the Internet at comparatively slow speeds, the company is creating a diluted version of the Web. That could stifle innovation by causing disadvantages for Indian startups building rival apps, or allow Facebook and its telecommunications carrier-partners to act as Internet gatekeepers.<br /><br /> In a sign of the importance he attaches to the issue, Zuckerberg on Tuesday called one of India's most prominent entrepreneurs to make his case.<br /><br /> One97 Communications, the mobile payments startup backed by Alibaba Group Holding, is one of several tech companies that have come out against Facebook's plans.<br /><br /> "We are totally against telcos preferring one developer over another," One97 founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said in a phone interview before that call. "We are asking for access neutrality. We are hoping that all startups will be treated equally."<br /><br /> Sonia Dhawan, a spokeswoman for One97's payment website Paytm, said the call took place but didn't describe the conversation further. Sharma wasn't available for further comment.<br /><br /> Facebook is now scrambling to drum up support. It's started a "Save Free Basics In India" campaign, asking Indian users to support "digital equality" by filling out a form that shoots an e-mail to regulators. That also has the effect of sending notifications to user's friends unless they opt out.<br /> Facebook has also taken out full-page advertisements, including one featuring a smiling Indian farmer and his family who the ads say used new techniques to double his crop yield.<br /><br /> While countries such as the Philippines have embraced Free Basics, India has been "the outlier and more challenging," Chris Daniels, vice president of Internet.org, said in a Dec. 26 chat on Reddit.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-bhuma-shrivastava-january-4-2016-zuckerberg-india-backlash-imperils-free-global-web-vision'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-bhuma-shrivastava-january-4-2016-zuckerberg-india-backlash-imperils-free-global-web-vision</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaFree BasicsSocial MediaInternet Governance2016-01-06T14:51:42ZNews ItemNasscom against differential pricing for data services
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-moulishree-srivastava-january-5-2016-nasscom-against-differential-pricing-for-data-services
<b>The National Association of Software and Services Companies says it should be the regulator that decides on such content, not firms.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Moulishree Srivastava was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/j1P4yZ3brS4Ttk6kUqy1QJ/Nasscom-against-differential-pricing-for-data-services.html">published in Livemint </a>on January 5, 2016. Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">India’s top software lobby on Monday said if select web content needs to be provided cheaper for some Indians, it must be the regulator that decides on such content, not companies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In its response to a consultation paper by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on differential pricing for data usage, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) objected to plans such as Free Basics and Airtel Zero where companies choose content to be provided at different speeds and prices, but backed powers for the regulator to allow such a model if the regulator deems they are in “public interest”, while adhering to principles of net neutrality.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“We strongly oppose any model where telecom service providers (TSPs) or their partners have a say or discretion in choosing content that is made available at favourable rates, speed... any differential pricing by TSP either directly such as Airtel Zero or indirectly as in the case of Free Basics through a platform provider which limits access to the internet services or websites (selected by the TSP or by the partners) violate the idea of net neutrality,” said R. Chandrashekhar, president, Nasscom.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“But when we recognize the reality of India as a country which has low internet penetration and even lower broadband penetration, apart from low levels of digital literacy and limited local language content... there may be a need to provide certain services in public interest at differential or lower prices which the regulator feels are necessary,” he said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Therefore, it is important that the regulator should have the power to allow differential pricing for certain types or classes of services that are deemed to be in public interest and based on mandatory prior approvals,” he said. “Any such programmes should abide by the principles of net neutrality and not constrain innovation in any way and not constrain innovation in any way.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Differential pricing for data usage means offering services at different price points to different users. However, analysts say it could lead to an anti-competitive environment, hurting small companies and start-ups, while giving the TSPs and their partner platforms near-monopolistic access to the vast amount of user data that has potential commercial value in a country such as India where privacy laws are not strong.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Differential pricing is a significant aspect of the net neutrality debate that erupted in India in 2015, when Trai released a consultation paper in April. Soon, telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd launched Zero, a marketing platform that allows customers to access mobile applications for free but charges the application providers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook’s Free Basics service (the new name for Internet.org) aims to offer people without the Internet free access to a handful of websites and a range of services through mobile phones, which net neutrality activists say will violate the core principle that everyone should have unrestricted access to Internet and it should not be regulated by a company.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Following the outrage, Trai put Free Basics on hold, asking Reliance Communications Ltd to furnish the detailed terms and conditions of its Free Basics service. The next step will be announced later this month.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In an op-ed in the <i>Times of India</i> last week, Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys Ltd. and former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India, publicly criticized Facebook’s Free Basics, calling it a walled garden.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The walled garden of Free Basics goes against the spirit of openness on the internet, and in the guise of being pro-poor, balkanises it. Only Free Basics-approved websites will be accessible for free,” he said in the article which he co-authored with Viral Shah who led the design of government’s subsidy platforms using Aadhaar. “In theory, anyone meeting the technical guidelines today can participate. However, services that may potentially compete with telco offerings may not join Free Basics. Since Facebook does not currently subsidise free usage, telcos will have to foot the bill by raising prices.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">He said schemes such as direct benefit transfer for Internet data packs would be better compared to programmes such as Free Basics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Nasscom, in its response, recommended “mandatory prior approval of such services by the regulator and sharing of periodic information on tariff plans seek to lower the price as well as zero rating services,” adding that these programmes should abide by the principle of net neutrality, meaning it should not limit consumers access to pre-defined set of services or websites.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Any such differential pricing programs should have explicit approval of the regulator—and should be deemed to be in the public interest and the onus of proving it to be in the public interest in the first instance would be on service provider and before Trai arrives at a final decision a public consultation is also advised because of the dangers involved,” Nasscom said. “Even after the approval, suitable oversight mechanism should be maintained by the regulator in all such case.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), said Nasscom’s approach to make differential pricing plans and options as an exception rather than the rule was quite reasonable. “It says that if differential pricing services adhere to the guidelines of being non-discriminatory, non-anti-competitive, non-predatory, non-ambiguous and transparent, they can be allowed under the supervision of the regulator, which is similar to the position adopted by CIS,” he said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Though some of their positions are ambiguous—for instance what they mean by non-discriminatory, and whether they are okay with differential pricing between classes of applications, are unclear—and some of their recommendations increase regulatory complexity, such as their proposal for independent not-for-profit entities with independent boards to own and manage such differential pricing programs, by and large it is a useful submission,” Prakash added.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-moulishree-srivastava-january-5-2016-nasscom-against-differential-pricing-for-data-services'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-moulishree-srivastava-january-5-2016-nasscom-against-differential-pricing-for-data-services</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaSocial MediaPrivacyFree BasicsInternet GovernanceFreedom of Speech and Expression2016-01-06T15:12:17ZNews ItemNetwork Neutrality Regulation across South Asia: A Roundtable on Aspects of Differential Pricing
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/network-neutrality-regulation-across-south-asia-a-roundtable-on-aspects-of-differential-pricing
<b>The Centre of Internet and Society (CIS) in association with Observer Research Foundation, and IT For Change in collaboration with the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania is pleased to announce a roundtable on ‘Network Neutrality Regulation Across South Asia: Aspects of Differential Pricing” that will take place on January 22, 2016 from 11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. at TERI in Bangalore. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/network-neutrality-across-south-asia" class="internal-link">Download the Invite</a></b></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">The objective of this roundtable will be to look into the issue of differential pricing in light of TRAI’s recent consultation process, with the specific intention of research building. The network neutrality debate has gained significant momentum in India during the past year, with competing interests of internet service providers, OTTs and the public giving rise to important questions of ICT regulation and policy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With Facebook looking to expand its zero rated walled garden, Free Basics, into nascent markets, differential pricing is an important point of regulatory policy not just in India, but in jurisdictions across South Asia. These countries have limited connectivity, large consumer potential and low internet penetration which bring to the fore questions of access, diversity, competition and innovation. To this end, the roundtable will seek to address the regulatory and market aspects of differential pricing as well as the impact on rights. Broadly, the roundtable will be forward looking and seek to build future research agendas.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Draft Agenda</h3>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>11:00 – 11:30</td>
<td>Tea and Registration</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:30 – 12:30</td>
<td>Roundtable 1: Framing the issue:<br />
<ul>
<li>The practice of differential pricing</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Examples of differential pricing</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Stakeholder perspectives</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Competition and market effect of differential pricing</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Larger social consequences of differential pricing</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12:30 – 1:00</td>
<td>Lunch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1:00 – 2:30</td>
<td>
<p>Roundtable 2: Regulatory response:</p>
<ul>
<li>Discerning governmental actions</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Locating public interest</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Moving from research to action</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2:30 – 3:00</td>
<td>Tea</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3:00 – 4:30</td>
<td>
<p>Roundtable 3: Impact on rights:</p>
<ul>
<li>Access</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Freedom of expression</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Privacy</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Equity and Social Justice</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4:30 – 5:00</td>
<td>Discussion and research agenda building<br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Roundtable Questions:</h3>
<p>Roundtable 1: FRAMING THE ISSUE:</p>
<ul>
<li>What is differential pricing and how does it work? What are the technical components and policy components of differential pricing? What are examples of differential pricing?</li>
<li>What has been the response from different stakeholders to differential pricing schemes? What are the arguments for/against differential pricing?</li>
<li>What could be the market effect of differential pricing?</li>
<li>What are possible larger social impacts of differential pricing?</li>
</ul>
<p>Roundtable 2: REGULATORY RESPONSE:</p>
<ul>
<li>How have governments responded to differential pricing? What can these responses tell us about the position of governments?</li>
<li>What are the different components for consideration with developing a regulatory response? What are different forms of regulation for differential pricing?</li>
<li>What type of policy research around differential pricing can drive meaningful action?</li>
</ul>
<p>Roundtable 3: IMPACT ON RIGHTS:</p>
<ul>
<li>How does differential pricing impact the right to access, freedom of expression, privacy, and equity and social justice?</li>
<li>Are there ways to mitigate this impact through regulation? Market incentives? Company policy?</li>
<li>What are forms of redress that individuals could seek in the context of differential pricing?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/network-neutrality-regulation-across-south-asia-a-roundtable-on-aspects-of-differential-pricing'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/network-neutrality-regulation-across-south-asia-a-roundtable-on-aspects-of-differential-pricing</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaPrivacyFree BasicsInternet GovernanceFreedom of Speech and ExpressionEvent2016-01-17T02:41:13ZEventWhy Indians are turning down Facebook's free internet
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/global-post-nimisha-jaiswal-why-indians-are-turning-down-facebook-free-internet
<b>Imagine a billion of the world’s poorest gaining overnight access to health information, education, and professional help — for free. Add to this one rich man who wants to make that dream a reality. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Nimisha Jaiswal was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.globalpost.com/article/6718467/2016/01/12/india-free-basics-facebook-internet">Global Post</a> on January 13, 2016. Sunil Abraham was quoted.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">That’s the invitation that Facebook has sent to India. Many there, however, are rejecting such benevolence.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook has introduced its Free Basics project in 36 countries. The company claims that the app acts as a stepping-stone to the internet for those who are otherwise without access, by providing them with a few essential sites — or “basics” — to get started.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">“We know that when people have access to the internet they also get access to jobs, education, healthcare, communication… We know that for India to make progress, more than 1 billion people need to be connected to the internet,” wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a recent op-ed for a major Indian <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/free-basics-protects-net-neutrality/" target="_blank">newspaper</a>. “Free Basics is a bridge to the full internet and digital equality.”</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">However, net neutrality researchers and activists in India define it quite differently.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">“Free Basics is a zero-rated walled garden that gives users a tiny subset of the world wide web,” Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society, told GlobalPost.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">The Free Basics app is part of Facebook’s Internet.org, a “zero-rating” internet service that provides limited access for no charge to the consumer. The original Internet.org was heavily criticized in India for violating net neutrality, the principle that all content on the web should be accessible to consumers at the same speed, without discrimination by providers.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">Last spring, as part of a homegrown <a href="https://www.savetheinternet.in/" target="_blank">Save The Internet</a> movement, over 1 million people wrote to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to protest services that disrupt net neutrality by providing only a small fraction of the internet to their users.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">India’s Department of Telecommunications has already recommended that such platforms be disallowed. Before it makes its own recommendations this month, the TRAI asked concerned citizens for another round of input on zero-rating apps. The criticism has been so loud that, at the end of December, Free Basics’ local telecom partner was ordered to take the service down until a decision is reached.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">Though Free Basics does not require payment from the websites it shares, Facebook’s competitors are unlikely to participate and provide user data to their rivals. And while there are currently no advertisements on Free Basics, Facebook reserves the right to introduce them in the future to garner revenue from their “walled-in” clients.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">According to Abraham, such a platform harms free speech, privacy, innovation and diversity by adding another layer of surveillance and “censoring” the internet.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">Mahesh Murthy, a venture capitalist who is part of India’s Save The Internet movement, puts it more bluntly.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">“What Facebook wants is our less fortunate brothers and sisters should be able to poke each other and play Candy Crush, but not be able to look up a fact on Google, or learn something on Khan Academy, or sell their produce on a commodity market, or even search for a job on [Indian recruitment website] Naukri,” said Murthy.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">Zuckerberg and Facebook’s India team have vigorously rebutted net neutrality activists in India, <a href="http://thewire.in/2015/12/30/facebooks-rebuttal-to-mahesh-murthy-on-free-basics-with-replies-18235/" target="_blank">including Murthy</a>, challenging their criticism of Free Basics and accusing activists of deliberately trying to prevent the masses from gaining internet access.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">“Critics of the program continue to spread false claims — even if that means leaving behind a billion people,” wrote Zuckerberg in his Times of India op-ed.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">According to Abraham, this is a misleading assertion. “They are falsely framing the debate, they are making it look like we have only two choices,” he told GlobalPost. “The choice is not between less people on the internet and unregulated [Free Basics].”</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">Several alternatives are being proposed. Abraham does not advocate a complete ban on Free Basics, instead suggesting a “leaky” walled garden where users would be given 100 MB of full internet access for every 100 MB of Free Basics consumed.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">The Save the Internet campaign, however, wants Free Basics barred altogether. It proposes returning to previously implemented schemes like providing data on the purchase of a phone, or letting users access the full internet after watching an ad. The Universal Service Obligation Fund, set up by the Department of Telecommunications to provide affordable communication technology in rural areas, could also be used to finance <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-editorials/free-basics-is-a-walled-garden-heres-a-much-better-scheme-direct-benefit-transfer-for-internet-data-packs/" target="_blank">free data packs</a>.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">While Facebook could potentially contribute to such funds to promote its connectivity goals, the millions of dollars it has spent loudly defending Free Basics in India suggest that the company is deeply attached to its own scheme.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook has claimed that “more than four in five Indians support Free Basics,” according to a survey that it paid for. Indian users of the social network have received notifications encouraging them to send a template letter to the regulator in support of Free Basics. Even users in the US were “<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Facebook-under-fire-for-asking-US-users-to-support-Free-Basics-in-India/articleshow/50286467.cms" target="_blank">accidentally</a>” notified to add their backing to the Indian campaign.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">Some of the company's critics suggest that it is driven less by philanthropy, more by guaranteeing itself a stream of new users.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">Murthy points out that a large number of the world’s population not yet on the internet are in India and China — and Facebook is banned in China. “So who becomes essential to Mark Zuckerberg’s balance sheet? Enter us Indians.”</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">While Indian activists agree that connectivity is an important goal, they insist that Free Basics in its current form is not the solution or even the only option right now. All it does is whets the appetite of the consumer, according to Abraham.</p>
<p class="ng-scope" style="text-align: justify; ">“You can compare Free Basics to when you go through the mall: You see the people selling cookies, and the aroma fills the whole mall,” he said. “That’s what Free Basics does — it gets you interested in the cookie. But it doesn’t solve the affordability question.”</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/global-post-nimisha-jaiswal-why-indians-are-turning-down-facebook-free-internet'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/global-post-nimisha-jaiswal-why-indians-are-turning-down-facebook-free-internet</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaFree BasicsFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet Governance2016-01-17T16:25:10ZNews ItemStart-up India turns the heat on Facebook Free Basics
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-anita-babu-december-23-2015-start-up-india-turns-the-heat-on-facebook-free-basics
<b>Facebook launched its "Save Free Basics" campaign last week, asking users to support "digital equality" in India.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Anita Babu was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/start-up-india-turns-the-heat-on-facebook-free-basics-115122300056_1.html">Business Standard</a> on December 22, 2015. Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span class="p-content">Nearly a week after Facebook launched its controversial "Save Free Basics" campaign in India, the net neutrality debate has come to the fore again. This time around, India's star internet entrepreneurs such as Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive of Paytm, and Dippak Khurana of Vserv have joined the crusade for free internet.<br /> <br /> "Oh my fellow Indians, either choose this and do a jihad for independent internet later or pick net neutrality today," Sharma of Paytm, India's largest digital wallet, tweeted on Tuesday. "Digital world war heads! We have to load <a href="http://www.savetheinternet.in%20for%20#NetNeutrality" target="_blank">http://www.savetheinternet.in for #NetNeutrality</a>," said Sharma in another tweet. Savetheinternet.in, a volunteer group, has urged people to lend their support for an unfettered internet in India.<br /> <br /> Facebook launched its "Save Free Basics" campaign last week, asking users to support "digital equality" in India, in response to a paper by the telecom regulator which is seeking comments on differential pricing practices like Airtel Zero of Facebook's Free Basics, which was earlier called Internet.org.<br /> <br /> Facebook launched a print and digital media campaign for a "connected India" asking users to give a missed call, automatically sending a message to the regulator in support of Free Basics.<br /> <br /> Facebook has also been asking its users to send an e-mail to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) supporting "essential internet for all". The social network claims to have gained support from 3.2 million of its 130 million users in India.<br /> <br /> On Tuesday, the social media giant earned flak for soliciting support from international users for the campaign. Later, Facebook withdrew the campaign outside India claiming it was an "accident".<br /> <br /> However, some net neutrality volunteers said that many of Facebook's 3.2 million supporters for Free Basics were non-Indians.<br /> <br /> Activists and tech leaders are calling the Facebook campaign "misleading" and "destructive".<br /> <br /> "People are being tricked into supporting Free Basics under the guise of digital equality," wrote Amol Malviya, former chief technology officer at Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce firm, on his blog. "Notice the language on the page? It makes any critic of Free Basics appear to be an enemy of digital equality. People will listen to the critics' arguments much lesser when there's a question mark on their intent."<br /> <br /> Nikhil Pahwa, editor and publisher of MediaNama, said India should question the intent of Facebook and its campaign. "There is misrepresentation in the language they have used. It makes people assume that we can't have universal internet access without net-neutrality violating services such as Free Basics. It is important for a country to take note of how much power a platform with as much reach as Facebook has to influence an important government process," said Pahwa, who led a fight against TRAI's move to allow telecom firms charge for internet services like WhatsApp and Hike.<br /> <br /> The basic premise of net neutrality is that of freedom - an open internet that protects and enables free communication. Anything that takes away this freedom violates the fundamentals of free Internet. "Facebook's Free Basics is neither free nor basic - it is a cleverly disguised way of walling a garden, and hardly the philanthropic initiative that it is marketed to be," said Khurana of Vserv. He urged internet users to uninstall the Facebook App from their mobile phones in protest.<br /> <br /> Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society, said, "Facebook, a foreign company, is allowed to campaign with impunity, but NGOs receiving funding from foreign trusts are subject to all manners of restrictions and may not campaign in India." </span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-anita-babu-december-23-2015-start-up-india-turns-the-heat-on-facebook-free-basics'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-anita-babu-december-23-2015-start-up-india-turns-the-heat-on-facebook-free-basics</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaFree BasicsSocial MediaInternet Governance2015-12-29T15:54:30ZNews ItemMillions of Indians Slam Facebook's ‘Free Basics’ App
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-2018free-basics2019-app
<b>It has been less than two months since the nationwide launch of the Free Basics app in India. The smart phone application (formerly known as Internet.org) offers free access to Facebook, Facebook-owned products like WhatsApp, and a select suite of other websites for users who do not pay for mobile data plans.</b>
<p>This was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://globalvoices.org/2015/12/29/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-free-basics-app/">Global Voices</a> on December 29, 2015.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But the app has already been suspended, at least temporarily, as the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority considers new rules governing network neutrality. Depending on how they're written, the rules could render Free Basics a violation of the policy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Free Basics, which has been deployed in 30 developing countries across the globe, gives users free access to websites that meet Facebook's technical standards for the application. The application does not give users access to the Internet at large. For open Internet advocates, this <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-facebook-marketing-india-20151228-story.html" target="_blank">undercuts consumer choice</a> and violates the principle of network neutrality, under which Internet providers are to treat all Internet traffic equally. Net neutrality allows users equal access to any website they want to visit, and gives website operators equal opportunities to attract visitors.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Polarist.png" alt="Polarist" class="image-inline" title="Polarist" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook has responded to the pending regulation with an <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/17/save-free-basics/" target="_blank">aggressive ad campaign</a> both online and off. Over the last week, Facebook users across India (and <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/tech/facebook-is-accidentally-asking-international-users-to-support-free-basics-in-india/story-CV3pyC5KDOnuJozMWLLWeO.html" target="_blank">some in the US</a>) upon logging into the site have been greeted with notifications urging them to take action. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/savefreebasics" target="_blank">Free Basics</a> page on Facebook now leads to a pleading form that asks users to contact the <a href="http://www.trai.gov.in/" target="_blank">Telecom Regulatory Authority of India</a> (TRAI) and voice their support for making Free Basics available in India. The company has also purchased a smattering of billboard advertisements across the country and taken out numerous two-page ads in leading national newspapers, as seen above.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">The Indian Internet bites back</h3>
<p>Indian netizens and activists have spoken out against the company's actions en masse, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/12/28/mark-zuckerbergs-latest-bid-to-get-india-on-board-with-free-basics-internet-is-like-a-library/" target="_blank">protesting</a> heavily on social media, blogs and newspapers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The grassroots open Internet group, <a href="http://www.savetheinternet.in/" target="_blank">SavetheInternet.in</a>, that has been advocating for net neutrality in India throughout 2015, has launched an email campaign asking users to send letters to TRAI explaining how Free Basics violates net neutrality principles and propagates an inaccurate picture of the Internet for new users by placing it inside the confines of Facebook's application.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Multiple stand-up comedy groups have created videos explaining the regulatory debate and supporting net neutrality, which have gone viral:</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AAQWsTFF0BM" width="560"></iframe> <br /> Above, the third in a series of videos created by All India Bakchod, in partnership with SavetheInternet.in. Below, a video by East India Comedy.</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UCwaKje44fQ" width="560"></iframe> <br /> The issue has also been hotly debated on Twitter, with technology and law experts leading the way.</p>
<p>Internet policy expert and lead staff member of the Center for Internet and Society in Bengaluru Pranesh Prakash tweeted:</p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/PraneshTweet.png" alt="Pranesh Tweet" class="image-inline" title="Pranesh Tweet" /></p>
<p>New Delhi-based technology lawyer Mishi Choudhary, who leads the legal team at the Software Freedom Law Center, tweeted:</p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/MishiTweet.png" alt="Mishi" class="image-inline" title="Mishi" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Free Software Movement of India, a non-profit promoting use of free software and its philosophy in India via their local chapters, also has <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/FSMI-Hyderabad-launches-campaign-against-Free-Basics/articleshow/50341156.cms" target="_blank">taken</a><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/FSMI-Hyderabad-launches-campaign-against-Free-Basics/articleshow/50341156.cms" target="_blank"> the campaign</a> to the streets where the volunteers raised public awareness about Free Basic's adverse side.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Apart from local experts and activists, companies like Reddit, Truecaller and Indian e-commerce platform Paytm have <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/12/28/aib-eic-facebook-free-basics/#0Gg8lzzilgqw" target="_blank">publicly shared</a> their opposition to Facebook's actions.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook targets open Web activists</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook is paying close attention to civil society opposition to its activities in India. Across the globe, the company's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/savefreebasics">Free Basics page</a> now opens to a plea for users to contact TRAI, and includes a statement that directly targets open Internet advocates, suggesting that their motives are somehow driven by financial incentives:</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">…Free Basics is in danger in India. A small, vocal group of critics are lobbying to have Free Basics banned on the basis of net neutrality. Instead of giving people access to some basic internet services for free, they demand that people pay equally to access all internet services – even if that means 1 billion people can't afford to access any services.</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">SavetheInternet.in explicitly states in their <a href="http://blog.savetheinternet.in/about/" target="_blank">About page</a> that they are entirely volunteer-run and have no affiliation with any political party in India or elsewhere.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Users also have tweeted screenshots alleging that Facebook is restricting access for individuals sending messages opposing Free Basics. This has not been confirmed, but the tweets have only further stoked public frustration with the company.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Facebook.png" alt="Facebook" class="image-inline" title="Facebook" /></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Zuckerberg vs. SavetheInternet</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On December 28, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg penned a piece in the Times of India arguing that Free Basics will help “achieve digital equality for India,” and claiming that the initiative “isn’t about Facebook’s commercial interests.” India represents the world's largest market of Internet users after the US and China, where Facebook remains blocked.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In response, Nikhil Pawa, founder of online portal MediaNama and a volunteer with Savetheinternet.in, <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/its-a-battle-for-internet-freedom/" target="_blank">authored</a> a critical opinion piece in the same newspaper:</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">[…] Why hasn’t Facebook chosen the options that do not violate Net Neutrality? For example, in India, Aircel has begun providing full internet access for free at 64 kbps download speed for the first three months….In Bangladesh, Grameenphone users get free data in exchange for watching an advertisement. In Africa, Orange users get 500 MB of free access on buying a $37 handset…<br /><br /> […]<br /></blockquote>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook is being disingenuous — as disingenuous as the company’s promotional programmes for Free Basics to its Indian users — when it says that Free Basics is in conformity with Net Neutrality.</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pawa also quoted Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Indian state of Odisha, who wrote to TRAI supporting net neutrality. “If you dictate what the poor should get, you take away their right to choose what they think is best for them,” he wrote.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; ">“If you dictate what the poor should get, you take away their right to choose what they think is best for them.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Writing for Quartz, technology critic <a href="http://qz.com/582587/mark-zuckerberg-cant-believe-india-isnt-grateful-for-facebooks-free-internet/" target="_blank">Alice Truong expressed similar sentiment:</a> “Zuckerberg almost portrays net neutrality as a first-world problem that doesn’t apply to India because having some service is better than no service.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For Mahesh Murthy, an Indian venture capitalist and self-described net neutrality activist, it all comes down to revenue. <a href="http://thewire.in/2015/12/26/facebook-is-misleading-indians-with-its-full-page-ads-about-free-basics-17971/">On the Wire,</a> Murthy offered untempered criticism of Facebook and Zuckerberg's efforts to appease the country's leaders:</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">[..] Unlike Facebook, who tried to silently slime this thing through last year when it was called Internet.org, and then are spending about Rs. 100 crores on ads – a third of its India revenue? – to try and con us Indians this year again. This is after we’d worked hard to ban these kind of products, technically called “zero rating apps” last year.[..] This Facebook ad [spread] doesn’t include the full-on Mark Zuckerberg love event put up for our Prime Minister when he visited the US, aimed again at greasing the way for this Free Basics thing through our government.</blockquote>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-2018free-basics2019-app'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-2018free-basics2019-app</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaFree BasicsSocial MediaTelecomInternet Governance2015-12-30T14:37:09ZBlog EntryFacebook’s Free Basics Shuts Down In Egypt, Continuing Troubled Run
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook2019s-free-basics-shuts-down-in-egypt-continuing-troubled-run
<b>The report was published by TV Newsroom on January 1, 2016. Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“This isn’t about <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Internetdotorg/videos/vb.475509262545134/913670072062382/?type=2&theater" target="_blank">Facebook’s</a> commercial interests – there aren’t even any ads in the version of <b>Facebook</b> in Free Basics”, he said. Initiatives like <a href="https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=fr&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http://www.afriqueitnews.com/category/internet/&usg=ALkJrhhRqQgR9oKwRK4guZQx_5CiK7kVgg">Internet</a>.org are attempting to change that, but not without backlash. A similar proposal called zero internet was put forward later by Airtel.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Facebook</b> now has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The <a href="http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/companies/mobile-powers-e-tail-unicorns-and-more-best-is-yet-to-come/184754/" target="_blank">India</a> fight is helping shape debates elsewhere”, said Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bangalore-based nonprofit advocacy group.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">That prompted <b>Facebook</b> CEO Mark Zuckerberg to write <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/free-basics-protects-net-neutrality/">an op-ed piece published in the Times of India</a> that asks, “Who could possibly be against this?” There was fulsome praise for Modi from the young internet billionaire. <a href="http://www.etisalat.eg/etisalat/portal/freebasics_en">Etisalat Egypt</a> could not be reached for comment at this time. “For example, <b>Facebook</b> can just provide 50 or 100 megabytes for their data connection free every month”.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On Wednesday, Trai <a class="local_link" href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/net-neutrality-paper-trai-to-extend-deadline-for-comments-to-january-7-783899">extended the last date</a> for submission of comments and counter comment to 7 and 14 January, respectively.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But Zuckerberg is not having a walk in the park with this <b>Free Basics</b> proposition. It sounds a perfectly good idea.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Internet.org is a partnership, led by <b>Facebook</b> and including Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Opera, Nokia and Qualcomm. Through a deal between <b>Facebook</b> and local mobile operators, the data to <a href="http://time.com/4157435/isis-isil-egypt-sinai/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter" target="_blank">access</a> those services is free.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The coalition has said that <b>Facebook</b> is misleading users and cautioned that the free service could be replete with advertising if and when it’s implemented. Similarly, signature drives are going on by those staunchly opposed to it. Now the problem for this is that we had asked for response to the specific question of differential pricing… instead we have got responses on supporting <b>Free Basics</b>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Those campaigning to protect net neutrality in India suggest data providers should not favour some online services over others by offering cheaper or faster access.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The founders and executives mention that the difference in pricing through zero rating “affects the ability of new players to compete” with well-established companies. A situation where the haves can access the Internet and enjoy its tremendous opportunities and the have nots are kept out. Zuckerberg said that India’s progress depends on providing Web access to the 1 billion Indians without it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Listing three main flaws within the programme, the scientists urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to “completely reject” <b>Facebook’s</b> “free fundamentals” proposal. Such as providing a tiered system of broad band access.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It would make sense for the government to target free <a class="local_link" href="http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/12/facebook-free-basics-net-neutrality/">Internet services</a> while it clamps down on physical gathering places.</p>
<hr />
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://tvnewsroom.org/newslines/science/facebook-s-free-basics-shuts-down-in-egypt-continuing-troubled-run-67130/">Read the original here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook2019s-free-basics-shuts-down-in-egypt-continuing-troubled-run'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook2019s-free-basics-shuts-down-in-egypt-continuing-troubled-run</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaFree BasicsSocial MediaInternet Governance2016-01-03T06:11:51ZNews ItemFacebook Free Basics vs Net Neutrality: The top arguments in the debate
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-express-december-31-2015-facebook-free-basics-vs-net-neutrality-the-top-arguments-in-the-debate
<b>On Twitter, there's a whole conversation around Facebook Free Basics and whether zero-rating platforms should be allowed in India. Here's a look at the debate.</b>
<p>The article was <a class="external-link" href="http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/facebook-free-basics-debate-the-arguments-that-are-unfolding-on-twitter/">published in the Indian Express</a> on December 31, 2015. Sunil Abraham and Pranesh Prakash were quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook’s Free Basics app, which aims to provide ‘free Internet access’ to users who can’t afford data packs, has run into trouble in India over the last two weeks. After regulator TRAI issued a paper questioning the fairness of zero-rating platforms, it also asked Reliance Communications (the official telecom partner for Free Basics) to put the service on hold.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook on its part has gone for an aggressive campaign, both online and offline, to promote Free Basics and ensure that its platform is not banned permanently. For Net Neutrality activists, zero-rating platforms are in violation of the principle as it restricts access to free, full Internet for users.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On Twitter too, there’s a serious debate unfolding around Free Basics and whether zero-rating platforms should be allowed in India. Here’s a look at some of the prominent voices around this Net Neutrality vs Free Basics debate.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Watch our video</h3>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y6vXJNVUDug" width="560"></iframe></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p id="stcpDiv" style="text-align: justify; ">Nikhil Pahwa, founder of news website MediaNama, has been campaigning for quite some time against zero-rating platforms in general and Net Neutrality. On Twitter, Pahwa points out that the problem with the zero-rating apps is that it gives telecos right to play kingmaker, and get into a direct relationship between a website and a user.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pahwa also wrote a counter-blog to Mark Zuckerberg’s <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/its-a-battle-for-internet-freedom/">column in The Times of India </a> questioning why Facebook is going with this restricted version of the web on Free Basics, rather than giving access to all websites.</p>
<p>He posted recently on Twitter, “Why hasn’t Facebook tried any model other than on which gives it a competitive advantage?”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pahwa adds, “With zero rating, telcos insert themselves into a previously direct relationship between a site and user. Some sites made cheaper versus others. Said it earlier, saying it again. Problem with zero rating is that it gives telcos the right to play kingmaker through pricing. So Net Neutrality battle isn’t just about Facebook. It’s about telcos lobbying for differential pricing+revenue share from Internet companies.”</p>
<div id="stcpDiv">Check out <a class="external-link" href="http://twitter.com/nixxin/status/681731772682354688">some of this tweets on the issue of Net Neutrality</a>:</div>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pranesh Prakash, the director for policy at Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in Bangalore, has said that a total ban might not be the ideal solution and one should look at the platforms on a case by case basis.<br /><br />He writes on Twitter, “My position: We should ban some zero-rating, allow some zero-rating, and deal w/ middle category either w/ +ve obligation or case-by-case. I’m all for banning Free Basics if it harms people more than it benefits them. I’ve even proposed tests for determining this. The regulator needs more data on a) conversion rates to full-Internet; b) cost of subsidy & c) QoE (speed, etc.) of Free Basics.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Check out Pranesh's tweets below</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/P1.png" alt="Pranesh Tweet" class="image-inline" title="Pranesh Tweet" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_P2.png" alt="Pranesh Tweet" class="image-inline" title="Pranesh Tweet" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/P3.png" alt="Pranesh Tweet" class="image-inline" title="Pranesh Tweet" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sunil Abraham, executive director at Centre for Internet and Society, has however questioned Free Basics on Twitter. He also posted counter-points to Pranesh’s tweets about data on conversion being used to create regulations around zero-ratings. He’s also called for a ban on Free Basics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Check out his tweets below</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/P4.png" alt="Pranesh Tweet" class="image-inline" title="Pranesh Tweet" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/P5.png" alt="Pranesh Tweet" class="image-inline" title="Pranesh Tweet" /></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-express-december-31-2015-facebook-free-basics-vs-net-neutrality-the-top-arguments-in-the-debate'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-express-december-31-2015-facebook-free-basics-vs-net-neutrality-the-top-arguments-in-the-debate</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaSocial MediaFree BasicsInternet GovernanceFreedom of Speech and ExpressionVideoSocial Networking2016-01-07T02:26:16ZNews ItemFacebook Free Basics: Gatekeeping Powers Extend to Manipulating Public Discourse
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/catchnews-january-6-2016-vidushi-marda-facebook-free-basics-gatekeeping-powers-extend-to-manipulating-public-discourse
<b>15 million people have come online through Free Basics, Facebook's zero rated walled garden, in the past year. "If we accept that everyone deserves access to the internet, then we must surely support free basic internet services. Who could possibly be against this?" asks Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in a recent op-ed defending Free Basics.
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<p>The article was published in Catchnews on January 6, 2015. For more info <a class="external-link" href="http://www.catchnews.com/tech-news/facebook-free-basics-gatekeeping-powers-extend-to-manipulating-public-discourse-1452077063.html">click here</a>.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">This rhetorical question however, has elicited a plethora of answers. The network neutrality debate has accelerated over the past few weeks with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) releasing a consultation paper on differential pricing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While notifications to "Save Free Basics in India" prompt you on Facebook, an enormous backlash against this zero rated service has erupted in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/FreeBasics.png" alt="Free Basics" class="image-inline" title="Free Basics" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The policy objectives that must guide regulating net neutrality are consumer choice, competition, access and openness. Facebook claims that Free Basics is a transition to the full internet and digital equality. However, by acting as a gatekeeper, Facebook gives itself the distinct advantage of deciding what services people can access for free by virtue of them being "basic", thereby violating net neutrality.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Amidst this debate, it's important to think of the impact Facebook can have on manipulating public discourse. In the past, Facebook has used it's powerful News Feed algorithm to significantly shape our consumption of information online.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In July 2014, Facebook researchers revealed that for a week in January 2012, it had altered the news feeds of 689,003 randomly selected Facebook users to control how many positive and negative posts they saw. This was done without their consent as part of a study to test how social media could be used to spread emotions online.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Their research showed that emotions were in fact easily manipulated. Users tended to write posts that were aligned with the mood of their timeline.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Another worrying indication of Facebook's ability to alter discourse was during the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in July and August, 2014. Users' News Feeds were flooded with videos of individuals pouring a bucket of ice over their head to raise awareness for charitable cause, but not entirely on its merit.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The challenge was Facebook's method of boosting its native video feature which was launched at around the same time. Its News Feed was mostly devoid of any news surrounding riots in Ferguson, Missouri at the same time, which happened to be a trending topic on Twitter.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Each day, the news feed algorithm has to choose roughly 300 posts out of a possible 1500 for each user, which involves much more than just a random selection. The posts you view when you log into Facebook are carefully curated keeping thousands of factors in mind. Each like and comment is a signal to the algorithm about your preferences and interests.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The amount of time you spend on each post is logged and then used to determine which post you are most likely to stop to read. Facebook even keeps into account text that is typed but not posted and makes algorithmic decisions based on them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It also differentiates between likes - if you like a post before reading it, the news feed automatically assumes that your interest is much fainter as compared to liking a post after spending 10 minutes reading it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook believes that this is in the best interest of the user, and these factors help users see what he/she will most likely want to engage with. However, this keeps us at the mercy of a gatekeeper who impacts the diversity of information we consume, more often than not without explicit consent. Transparency is key.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>(Vidushi Marda is a programme officer at the Centre for Internet and Society)</i></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/catchnews-january-6-2016-vidushi-marda-facebook-free-basics-gatekeeping-powers-extend-to-manipulating-public-discourse'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/catchnews-january-6-2016-vidushi-marda-facebook-free-basics-gatekeeping-powers-extend-to-manipulating-public-discourse</a>
</p>
No publishervidushiFree BasicsFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet GovernanceSocial Media2016-01-09T13:43:56ZBlog EntryTrai promises final call on differential pricing by month-end after 'lively' open house
https://cis-india.org/telecom/news/trai-promises-final-call-on-differential-pricing-by-month-end-after-lively-open-house
<b>The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will take a final call on differential pricing by the end of January , its chairman said, describing the open house discussions on the regulator's contentious consultation paper as "lively".</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <a class="external-link" href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/telecom/trai-promises-final-call-on-differential-pricing-by-month-end-after-lively-open-house/articleshow/50675121.cms">article by Economic Times</a> was published on January 22, 2016. CIS gave inputs.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">"It was a very lively consultation, the hall was full. We will take all these into account and hope that by the end of the month, we should be able to come out with our position," Trai chairman Ram Sewak Sharma said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Companies.png" alt="Companies" class="image-inline" title="Companies" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">He, however, refused to link this consultation paper to the broader topic of net neutrality . "Net neutrality is a different subject. First we will decide differential pricing, then we will look at other issues. I cannot say at this time what Trai will do on the larger issue of net neutrality , but we will certainly take a call," Sharma said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The open house saw a near packed house, with representatives from Trai, several telecom companies, civil society organisations, industry bodies, and individuals, but the debate did not turn out to be as explosive as the acrimonious lead-up to it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook India's policy head Ankhi Das, whose presence was hugely anticipated after a recent round of high octave communication between Trai and Facebook was made public, did not turn up.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A representative of Facebook, whose zero-rated programme called Free Basics has been at the cent re of the controversy surrounding the differential pricing paper, said: "As a company we have commented. With Free Basics we hope to bring people online in a non-discriminatory manner... We hope Trai will encourage Free Basics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Telcos including Bharti AirtelBSE -0.37 %, Idea CellularBSE 0.05 %, Reliance CommunicationsBSE -1.58 %, Sistema Shyam, Tata Communications, VideoconBSE -0.54 % Telecom, and Vodafone made a case for allowing differential pricing, and most cited extending the practice from voice to data services.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Differential pricing should be incorporated as were done in voice telephony. Data should be encouraged while the content part can be taken up in another consultation paper," a Vodafone representative said.<br /><br />The volunteer-led savetheinternet.in coalition said: "Internet is not a marketplace. Though telcos advocate differential pricing in the name of different customer classes, but when they charge for third party content, it becomes a problem."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Civil society organisations also made detailed submissions, explaining their positions. While most, including industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India, said they were against differential pricing, some took a slightly cautious view. "What hasn't been discussed is that there is already differential pricing and this is undocumented," said a representative of Centre for Internet and Society. "Free Basics isn't following certain protocol standards, and this is a concern. We don't have enough data on internet usage, costs, user experience, to take a decision now," he added.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A representative of Tata CommunicationsBSE 0.58 % said "sponsored data services" exist around the world and argued citing an example that providing free voice service does not confer competitive advantage.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"If there are two pizza vendors: one with a toll-free service for taking orders and the other where you pay money to order without a toll-free service. The uptake in the pizza depends on the quality and the price of the pizzas. It is not because it is a toll free call," he said.<br /><br />This comparison drew laughter in the open house, and became the butt of jokes on Twitter from internet freedom advocates. "Btw, I think a new analogy from the telco guys today, comparing the internet with pizza. How creative," tweeted Nikhil Pahwa, who under the banner of savetheinternet.in has been campaigning for net neutrality.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">IAMAI president Subho Ray's candid commentary on submissions, calling some of them "badly done homework", did not go down well with some members of the audience.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Individual entrepreneurs made a case for not having differential pricing, as that would mean the telcos would get to decide the access for their business. Some people suggested alternatives. Digital Empowerment Foundation founder Osama Manzar said unlicensed spectrum or Wi-Fi could be used to provide access in the rural areas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Trai launched the differential pricing consultation paper on December 9, which was followed by Facebook starting a mass campaign, asking its users to support Free Basics, urging them to email Trai in support of "digital equality" and supporting Free Basics.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/news/trai-promises-final-call-on-differential-pricing-by-month-end-after-lively-open-house'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/news/trai-promises-final-call-on-differential-pricing-by-month-end-after-lively-open-house</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaFree BasicsTelecomTRAI2016-01-26T02:41:56ZNews Item