Facebook’s Free Basics a New Form Of Colonization ?
Facebook started Internet.org on August 20, 2013, where Facebook along with several other companies planned to offer some of the developing countries access to different internet services and applications by increasing the efficiency and facilitating its use. The websites are free of charges and include subjects like news, health, education and local information. The application was called Free Basics by Facebook. The main purpose of Free Basics is offering the users in 63 countries a wide selection of data-light of web pages and other services (Lamb, 2017). However, Free Basics was criticized because it only gives access to a limited number of websites, with poor services and poor internet. It was criticized specially for violating net neutrality, which is making all websites and data on the Internet the same and not discriminating among them. In 2016, it was banned in India for many reasons. They discovered that Free Basics has limited websites that come from the United States and are not even local or relevant to this audience, but has a third-party services from owners. As for the issue of net neutrality, Free Basics discriminates among websites by allowing access to a very limited range of services. Furthermore, there was no privacy in it, thus users were tracked in each and every activity. Some search engines were put as available like Bing, but once opened they had charges and were not free as described by Facebook (Lamb, 2017). Free Basics by Facebook was seen as a start for a new form digital colonization. Digital colonization is controlling the users and people through all the data they use and websites they visit by tracking them. Facebook has applied a form of colonization since it is tracking users with third-party. The biggest failure for the service is in India, where the company spent 45 million dollars promoting, but it received a complete banning of Free Basics. Many services that are most important in the application are owned by US companies (The Guardian). Facebook’s free Internet is a form of digital colonization, since Facebook by limiting the uses, controlling what countries and people see, and tracking them is a digital control over a population.
Facebook offers a wide range of applications for users of Free Basics such as Accuweather, Ask.com, Bing search, Wattpad, WikiHow, Wikipedia, etc.
The company also expanded the services it offers to 500 Free Basics apps functioning across 37 countries.
To convince audiences and users of how beneficial Free Basics is, Facebook did many speeches and advertising campaigns for the new Internet service. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, spoke in different speeches to let people know about Free Basics. The company persuaded people by telling them what Free Basics will offer as services and websites or applications. Facebook also gave statistics about the numbers of users and how it is expanding.
For example, this was a tweet by the Free Basics account on twitter, where the company is posting facts and statistics about Free Basics, and how much benefits it offers.
Another example is Facebook replying to critics in order to prove its benefits and announce new tools, by a Facebook post.
Facebook opened the way for any operator to join or participate, not necessarily only the ones who joined in order to widen its services and make it reach to a larger audience. Some documents show that the operators and the participants in giving Free Basics the apps have made economic investments to help bring this program to people saying that at least some costs of the many costs of Free Basics is covered by the operators (GlobalVoices, 2017). While Facebook in its Free Basics is offering different apps,BuzzFeed News found that the companies of these apps and not Facebook were responsible for the costs of any additional data usage, and Facebook is supporting them with the costs and the ongoing progress, growth and expansion of the technology (GlobalVoices, 2017). Facebook’s strategy to increase its population is to bring more of what interests users in order to widen the audience and gain faster positive feedback. According to Facebook, Free Basics has reached 37 countries in addition to India, 20 in Africa, 11 in Asia and the Middle East, and 6 in Latin America. For most of the countries, Facebook limits what users use, for example in Panama where 30% of people are using Free Basics, they can access certain websites but when going to some others, directly it shows that they should pay, or that it requires extra charges.
Percentages show that individuals using the internet are increasing gradually in Mexico, Kenya, Philippines, Ghana, etc, from years 2006 to 2013, at the same time mobile-cellular subscriptions are also increasing gradually.
How the application is opened and used differs from country to another. In Ghana when opening the app for the first time, nothing is required of personal information. While in Kenya, Ghana and Pakistan, it is required to enter the log in information of the Facebook account. In Colombia for example, third-party can not be able to access unless the user logs in to his/her Facebook account. This means that when Facebook implements the requirement of logging in to Facebook, it is enabling third-party to have the access to these users. In Mexico, in order for the app to work in the first place a certain phone is needed, and not all kinds work (GlobalVoices, 2017). In addition to that, users can choose not to log in to Facebook, but in any ways they are to agree on terms and policies, cookies and more that come from Facebook. This way Facebook is also keeping track and controlling users.
Facebook is of course benefiting from the Free Basics since it is reaching more and more people where Internet is not of easy access there. By doing this also, Facebook is gaining more profits and prospering its economy. With respect to the countries using Free Basics, they are benefiting but at the same time they are being tracked and not getting what the company is really saying. So, Facebook is benefiting more and it cannot be considered a win-win situation.
Facebook by implementing Free Basics in developing countries has contributed in making a technological development by letting the people of these countries connect more and have access to apps and Internet easily, but Facebook is benefiting from doing this initiative even more, how?
Facebook is offering services for developing countries, but in reality there exists many conditions and policies for this service to operate in each of the countries. Furthermore, Free Basics is not meeting the needs of users fully and it is not performing what it tells to people willing to join and use it. Free Basics is for countries such as Pakistan, India, Mexico and others where language is needed to be relevant and known, because not any language is fluent among them, but Free Basics is not meeting their needs, since in almost all the countries joining Free Basics, only two languages are offered. On the other hand, Free Basics brings up an inequality between apps and services. For example, people can only use Facebook, there is no Instagram or Twitter. When opening a site, sometimes a limited version can be used, but after that charges are added and people cannot access it anymore. Since only a limited certain number of apps work with Free Basics, it is considered as violating net neutrality. Moreover, Free Basics gives Facebook the ability to track users and control them by what they use, visit, and see. Not only they track them online and in data, but also Facebook is able to track their habits on the web through Free Basics. Hence, Free Basics constitutes a new form of digital colonization.
References:
GlobalVoices. (2017). ‘Free Basics in Real Life’.
Lamb, H. (2017) https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2017/07/facebook-s-free-basics-fails-to-meet-needs-of-target-populations-report-says/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/27/facebook-free-basics-developing-markets
