Facebook Free Basics- Questioned For Its Credibility

Free Basics by Facebook has been facing a backlash for its credibility.

Facebook Inc. seems to be in despair since it will never get a chance to offer free Internet to underprivileged emerging nations. The Free Basics app was launched after it came up with its Internet.org service that was halted in Egypt in 2015. Thus, a few months later it observed a similar incident in India.

As per the report published by Reuters, the reason why the Free Basics service by the social media giant has been halted in the region is that Facebook did not agree to the barriers set by the Egyptian government. The government asked the company to spy on the local populace through its platform. The service was launched in Egypt which was targeting the groups with low incomes who owned a smartphone which allowed them to have Internet access. Other than that, a few other services were also being offered free of cost. Thus at this point, Free Basics is stumbling since the advocates of net neutrality is only believe that the service targets the platforms associated to Facebook only. This disregards a free and fair experience over the Internet.

On December 30, the government of Egypt suspended the operation of Free Basics. This was right after the company’s local network carrier; Etisalat got the approval to offer the service for a time span of two months. The reason behind this is that the social media behemoth refused to conduct surveillance for the government. So far the demands of the government aren’t clear.

This is not it since the local authorities have a different story to narrate. Reuters was reported by the spokesperson belonging to the Ministry of Communications that the suspension of Free Basics is merely because it causes a dent on the operations of local companies by incentivizing. The service is being offered in 37 countries, where it does not sell any advertisements so far. But what it does is collaborate with wireless carriers to offer data to enable browser. As per Facebook, three million individuals were taking advantage of the service before it got halted. Amongst those one million were new users using the Internet for the first time.

The decision put forward by the Egyptian government clearly indicates that the Free Basics service is not welcome all over the globe. India, which is said to be the second largest population across the globe, was also taken on board but after a lot of drama by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), it was finally decided that the service will be abandoned in the region fighting against the other zero rate service. On the other hand, the debate in Egypt was extremely publicized.

The good part pertaining to the news is that Facebook is certainly not the privacy intruder who is ready to compromise on your data for its own purpose. As per a study, the company abides to almost 80% of the demands set by the government of United States. However, it still continues to fight for the consumers wherever it is possible.