Facebook Launches FreeInternet Browsing In Nigeria

Internet giants, Facebook in
collaboration with Airtel, have
launched Internet.org Free Basics, a
free internet browsing app in
Nigeria.

Free Basics is an initiative by
Facebook and several other partner
companies to deliver zero-rated
internet services to the 4 billion-odd
people still offline. Facebook
reaches out to local telcos and get
them to zero-rate certain sites and
services that meet Facebook’s
criteria.

“Free Basics offers Nigerians,
including 90 million people who are
currently offline, the opportunity to
access news, health information and
services like Jobberman that were
built by Nigerians and other
developers across West Africa — all
without having to pay for data,”
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg
said.

Airtel is Facebook’s telecoms
partner in Nigeria. As a result,
Nigeria will now 37 countries with
Free Basic-activated countries.

“We’re pleased to take this big step
forward in our partnership with
Facebook, bringing more people
online in Africa’s most populous
country and helping to further
narrow the digital divide,” said
Airtel Africa CEO, Christian de Faria
about the partnership.

Critics, some of whom have
organized under the banner of
“savetheinternet. in” say that the
internet.org offers neither the entire
internet, nor is it a charitable
organization, for which .org domain
names are usually used. Facebook
responded by changing the name of
the service in 2015 to “Free Basics”.
Moreover, the critics argue that if
Indians and other poor-world
internet internet users spend the
vast majority of their time within
Facebook’s walled garden, that
would force other businesses to set
up shop on Facebook rather than on
their own websites or elsewhere on
the internet. This would give
Facebook enormous power over
competitors and indeed over the
internet.

There is some evidence to show
their fears are not unfounded: a
survey last year found that millions
of Facebook users in the poor world
don’t realize they are actually using
the internet. Facebook’s critics
succeeded in getting Facebook to
open up access to Free Basics. The
new regime allows any business,
including competitors, apply to join
if they meet certain technical
requirements…

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facebook-launches-free-internet-
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