Facebook's FUDdy, full-page anti-Net-Neutrality Indian newspaper ads

Cory Doctorow 8:52 am Sun Dec 27, 2015

Facebook is desperate to ensure that the Internet never takes hold in developing nations — they want a walled garden that they get to own and operate.

They've been experimenting with "zero rating," where they bribe mobile phone carriers in poor countries not to charge for the services that Facebook anoints. This has been extensively tried and evaluated, and it does virtually nothing to get poor people online — rather, it's used by the wealthy to offset their mobile bills on their commutes, between wifi (that is, real Internet access).

There was a popular uprising in India in response to this, analogous to the USA's SOPA fight, in which Indian net activists rejected zero-rating in favor of better telcoms regulation, more competition, and an end to corrupt practices in mobile services.

India's telcoms regulator eventually took notice, banning Facebook's zero-rating partners from favoring its services. In response, Facebook's taken out huge, full-page ads rubbishing Net Neutrality, full of FUD worthy of 1990s-era Microsoft.

(Thanks, Jeff!)

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