This also pertains to ethics thread...
During April Facebook was peddling hard its internet.org on to network providers and urging users to sign petitions to TRAI in its favour. This was criticised heavily for violating net neutrality which rigs the playing field in favour of big services like Facebook and their content creator corporate friends, leaving out hundreds of small, niche sites which include the ERE site.
They do this by partnering with network providers to coax them into providing Facebook for free... take it to its logical extreme and you can see the future internet where cable is today... paying for viewing a channel subscription AND being bombarded with ads.
Last month Facebook resumed its dirty tricks by giving internet.org new clothes to put on by calling it "Free Basics", adding bells and whistles. This was severely criticised by Tim Berners-Lee, co-creator of the World Wide Web.
In a zero-sum world, the benefit of a few always comes from the detrimental effects on many small content creators and service websites on the internet: Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch. If it is free, 'you' are the product being sold to advertisers. Internet is for content creators big and small- Not just for Facebook and its corporate friends.
If this descision is not passed in favour of net neutrality, against this new gimmick Facebook has come up with, it will lead to similar attempts to crush net neutrality in other countries too.
Fortunately, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a consultation paper before reaching a conclusion.
This is why I urge you to sign this petition regardless of the country you live in:
Don't allow differential pricing of services on the Internet. Let the consumers choose how they want to use Internet. #netneutrality
More points to consider:
1 Facebook is intentionally misleading the most gullible of its users in favour of the 'for' side. There is no formal mechanism with can rival their reach which is why I have resorted to this informal method for support of the 'against' side
2 You give them an inch and they WILL take a mile.
3 It is a matter of principle and not of dogma. If these services really benefit anyone at all, let them compete with others in the open market, we have got the closest to a free market we can practically get on the internet.
Historic note: Nokia had tried to provide the services which have been recently added under "Free Basics" in 09-10 but it didn't catch on.
Don't allow differential pricing of services on the Internet. Let the consumers choose how they want to use Internet. #netneutrality