Should Facebook Be Allowed To Give Away Free Internet in the Global South?

The fight over free internet — and by extension, democracy, development, and net neutrality.

The idea sounds innocent enough: Facebook gifts its social network and a host of other websites for free to cell phone users who can’t afford to pay for internet in the Global South.

So why is India — a country that craves its Facebook fix as much as the next country — about to reject it?

For our sister Medium publication Backchannel, I plumbed into the rabid debate being waged over Facebook’s program known as Free Basics, which is offered in 37 developing countries and growing. In January, I traveled to India to get an on-the-ground look at the massive cyber protest movement against the program, and witness Facebook’s equally massive advertising blitz to win over hearts and minds. Already, the story is generating some interesting feedback on Medium (check out those responses at the tail of the story!).

So just what, exactly, is at stake?

The crux of the battle isn’t a traditional social justice issue. Most everybody agrees that internet access is an important tool for lofty capital-letter concepts like Democracy, Development, Education, Inclusion, and, you know, YouTube. Some in the Indian NGO community cheer Free Basics on the grounds that, in a country with just 20 percent of its population online, some internet access via private sector-funded Free Basics is better than no internet at all. Facebook and telecoms have the juice to get people on the internet now, they say, even if it’s not the entire internet.

Instead, this fight hinges on another capital-letter concept: Net Neutrality. These foes tend to come from more of the techie set, which is why I headed to Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India.

They argue that Free Basics sets up two internets: the free one with Facebook and the sites that Facebook allows on its platform, and the rest of the internet, which people still must pay for. And that, they charge, lets Facebook play gatekeeper, controlling what a swath of the population can access.

They fear it will stop companies in India’s growing startup scene from getting discovered. And they’re scared that if Facebook is allowed to do this, more telecoms will divvy up the internet into more discounted deals that favor themselves or deep-pocketed partner companies. And it’s not just a few netizens who worry about this: even the World Bank says zero-rated services (telecom speak for “free”) muck up net neutrality and consumer choice and more capital-word concepts like Freedom Of Expression.

No matter how regulators rule in India in the upcoming days, keep your eye on zero-rating. It will be an ongoing debate as developing countries weigh their urgency to get online with the terms on which Silicon Valley companies offer a solution.

Photo: A Free Basics ad I snapped while sitting in Bangalore’s snarly traffic, en route to interview some not-as-snarly internet activists. // The Development Set is made possible by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We retain editorial independence.