EFF: Internet.org is NOT the Internet

Anti competitive practices, lack of privacy protections…Internet.org is NOT the Internet.  Article by David Bogao and Katitza Rodriguez for EFF During the VII Summit of the Americas held in Panama from 10 to 11 April, presidents from several Latin American countries, including the Panamanian Juan Carlos Varela, CristinaFernandez of Argentina, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, and Ollanta Humala of Peru posed for a photo with a special guest: Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and spokesperson for Internet.org. 

Anti competitive practices, lack of privacy protections…Internet.org is NOT the Internet. 

Article by David Bogao and Katitza Rodriguez for EFF

During the VII Summit of the Americas held in Panama from 10 to 11 April, presidents from several Latin American countries, including the Panamanian host Juan Carlos Varela, Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, and Ollanta Humala of Peru posed for a photo with a special guest: Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and spokesperson for Internet.org.

Internet.org is a project led by Facebook that brings together technology companies, NGOs and local communities, with the aim, as advertised on their website, of connecting "two thirds of the world without access to the network." Joining Facebook are companies like Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Samsung,  collaborating on a joint project to create and distribute tools and services that provide free basic services in markets where Internet access may be less affordable. Since 2014, they have provided access to a set of basic applications (providing data on climate and health, sharing classified and library information) in certain African and Asian countries. By early 2015, internet.org also laid foundations in Colombia, Guatemala and Panama (in the coming weeks). Paraguay was a beta tester country for Facebook Libre (Free Facebook) since 2013.

Internet.org goals are based on a real problem: the digital divide. Millions of people worldwide have no way to access the internet, and it is an urgent problem to solve in the near future. However, one of Internet.org's proposals—the zero rating proposal—means that people with fewer economic resources will have free access only to certain portions of the Internet. That portion will be decided between those large corporations that are part of Internet.org. To add to the confusion, the governments involved are promoting this segmentation of the Net as a public policy objective.

Internet.org users will be cut off from the "ocean" of the Internet that the rest of the world inhabits, where the whole Internet is available for use without any discrimination or prioritization of certain applications. Instead, they will enjoy a "fishbowl" Internet, which they will have to pay an added charge for all those services that are not part of the zero rating plan (for instance, small businesses sites, independent app developers, and innovative new services.)

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