Facebook Launches 'Save Free Basics' Campaign in India
Facebook's has launched a campaign that shows up on the top of its feed for Indian users, exhorting them to send a message to the Trai in support of Free Basics in India.
Claiming to support digital equality, the Save Free Basics campaign page provides users with a pre-written response to Trai saying the initiative could connect a billion Indians online. The pre-written message says that over a billion Indians would be hurt by the shutting down of its Free Basics program.
The page exhorts users to send the response, claiming "Free Basics is in danger in India." Directly pointing to the SaveTheInternet campaign, the page adds, "A small, vocal group of critics are lobbying to have Free Basics banned on the basis of net neutrality. Instead of giving people access to some basic Internet services for free, they demand that people pay equally to access all Internet services, even if that means 1 billion people can't afford to access any services... Unless you take action now, India could lose access to free basic Internet services, delaying progress towards digital equality for all Indians. Tell the Trai that you support Free Basics and digital equality in India.The pre-written response to Trai is reproduced in full below:
"To the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, I support digital equality for India. Free Basics provides free access to essential Internet services, such as communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming information and more. It helps those who can't afford to pay for data, or who need a little help with getting started online. And it's open to all people, developers and mobile networks. With 1 billion Indian people not yet connected, shutting down Free Basics would hurt our country's most vulnerable people. I support Free Basics and digital equality for India. Thank you."
The Web form has a 'Send Email' submit button that lets Facebook allegedly send your response, name, email address, to Trai, but it also works in incognito, so the user doesn't have to be signed to Facebook to support the campaign. Users can send anonymous messages with random names, without having to enter an email address.
Two people familiar with the net neutrality debate said that this seemed like a new development.
"This is something new, that Facebook is officially doing," said Karthik Balakrishnan, one of the volunteers behind the SaveTheInternet campaign that sent over 1.1 million emails in April this year in response to Trai's consultation paper.
"I would be very surprised if they send emails to Trai for every submission that happened. Even though the campaign says email, it's mostly a signatory thing, they will collect all of this and send a collated list to claim that certain number of people have campaigned to save Free Basics." he said.
In an emailed response, a Facebook spokesperson offered the following quote:Hundreds of millions of people in India use the Internet every day and understand the benefits it can bring. This campaign's goal is to give these people the opportunity to support digital equality in India and help connect the billion who remain offline by giving them a voice in the public debate that is being held by The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on differential pricing for data services."
This Is what was visible to us now time to think about this also -
Facebook's has launched a campaign that shows up on the top of its feed for Indian users, exhorting them to send a message to the Trai in support of Free Basics in India.
Claiming to support digital equality, the Save Free Basics campaign page provides users with a pre-written response to Trai saying the initiative could connect a billion Indians online. The pre-written message says that over a billion Indians would be hurt by the shutting down of its Free Basics program.
The page exhorts users to send the response, claiming "Free Basics is in danger in India." Directly pointing to the SaveTheInternet campaign, the page adds, "A small, vocal group of critics are lobbying to have Free Basics banned on the basis of net neutrality. Instead of giving people access to some basic Internet services for free, they demand that people pay equally to access all Internet services, even if that means 1 billion people can't afford to access any services... Unless you take action now, India could lose access to free basic Internet services, delaying progress towards digital equality for all Indians. Tell the Trai that you support Free Basics and digital equality in India.The pre-written response to Trai is reproduced in full below:
"To the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, I support digital equality for India. Free Basics provides free access to essential Internet services, such as communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming information and more. It helps those who can't afford to pay for data, or who need a little help with getting started online. And it's open to all people, developers and mobile networks. With 1 billion Indian people not yet connected, shutting down Free Basics would hurt our country's most vulnerable people. I support Free Basics and digital equality for India. Thank you."
The Web form has a 'Send Email' submit button that lets Facebook allegedly send your response, name, email address, to Trai, but it also works in incognito, so the user doesn't have to be signed to Facebook to support the campaign. Users can send anonymous messages with random names, without having to enter an email address.
Two people familiar with the net neutrality debate said that this seemed like a new development.
"This is something new, that Facebook is officially doing," said Karthik Balakrishnan, one of the volunteers behind the SaveTheInternet campaign that sent over 1.1 million emails in April this year in response to Trai's consultation paper.
"I would be very surprised if they send emails to Trai for every submission that happened. Even though the campaign says email, it's mostly a signatory thing, they will collect all of this and send a collated list to claim that certain number of people have campaigned to save Free Basics." he said.
In an emailed response, a Facebook spokesperson offered the following quote:Hundreds of millions of people in India use the Internet every day and understand the benefits it can bring. This campaign's goal is to give these people the opportunity to support digital equality in India and help connect the billion who remain offline by giving them a voice in the public debate that is being held by The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on differential pricing for data services."
This Is what was visible to us now time to think about this also -
By supporting ‘Digital Equality’ on Facebook, you supported an ‘Evil’; Don’t fall in TRAP
Now we know that Facebook can play any kind of mind-game to promote its free basics. It already knows that Indian people are not ready to accept its ‘Free Basics’ just because we do not want Internet to be ruled by Facebook and its partners who can pay. So, Facebook has started an emotional campaign called ‘digital equality’. If you are too emotional to support this, I want you to know that it is a trap.
Earlier morning, I received few notifications from friends who supported ‘digital equality’ campaign from Facebook.
When I clicked on this, I found that it was not the support to ‘digital equality’. It is a campaign to get support for its ‘Free Basics’. This is irony. Facebook is talking about ‘digital equality’ but promoting ‘Free basics’ to snatch the digital equality of web publishers.
Why ‘Free basics’ is just opposite to ‘Digital Equality’
‘Free basics’ is a platform to offer Internet for free but this Internet will be paid by advertisers. So, it is just an internet with the websites which can pay for the visits of their users. Now, see it like if Flipkart is paying for its customers, ‘Free basics’ users will only be able to access Flipkart for free and hence they will stop using Snapdeal or others. Is it giving, e-commerce store an equality? No, it is promoting its advertisers and offering them more customers.
Now, see it in broader way. There are various startups which do not have enough budget to advertise the visit of new customers. They will never get most of the people just because people want to access free Internet now. India is the country where free thing is more important and people become blind to use it. So, think how medium and small websites will grow in India. They will never get equal chance?
Is it the equality? No, it is the ruling of Internet by Facebook. Facebook and its telecom partner will decide what ‘Free Basics’ users will see.
I am very sorry to say that our country is too emotional. And most of the companies exploit this to advertise their product. Just by seeing see ‘equality’ and ‘feminism’ words, People in our country blindly support the cause without thinking about its pros and cons. Life is a like a chess game, always think the effect of what you are doing.
In directly, thousands of users sent support email to TRAI. This is disappointing.
I hope TRAI will consider this TRAP in mind before deciding anything about ‘Free Basics’.
Kindly share Your valuable thoughts.
Source - Techlomedia & NDTV Gadgets
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