December 2018

High-speed broadband and mobile internet have created more opportunities to access free news and information than ever before. But they have also made it harder for quality news and information outlets, particularly ones in rural areas, to survive. Tech has disrupted the local media business model and pushed more journalism behind paywalls — and there's no end in sight. Experts worry that the deployment of 5G over the next few years will worsen the digital divide and have a lasting impact on how rural communities will be able to access quality news and information.

Facebook Basics is an app and mobile site that provides free access to a tightly curated set of web content and, naturally, Facebook itself. Facebook promotes Free Basics as a bridge to the wider internet for consumers in developing nations. But in practice the subsidized content can simply become the internet. That's what happened in the Philippines. That particular kind of internet provided president Rodrigo Duterte with the perfect environment to wage a war of misinformation against his enemies and on behalf of his brutal drug war.