'Poor internet for poor people': India's activists fight Facebook connection plan

[Commentary] India is having its Internet uprising, and many western activists can’t figure out what to do about it. Since the spring of 2015, Indian activists have built ferocious momentum against Facebook’s bid to take charge of the nation’s Internet through a program called Free Basics. Formerly called “Internet Zero,” Free Basics’s pitch has been: we’ll get “the next billion internet users” (that is, poor people in developing nations) connected by cutting deals with local phone companies. Under these deals, there will be no charge for accessing the services we hand-pick. We will define the Internet experience for these technologically unsophisticated people, with our products at the centre and no competition. It’s philanthropy!

India’s network neutrality activists have a crisp name for this: “Poor Internet for Poor People”. They rallied thousands, then tens of thousands, and eventually millions under that banner. Here we have India’s SOPA moment: an unexpected, unprecedented uprising that’s caught the popular imagination, terrified one of the largest companies in the world, made politicians and regulators take notice. India’s activists didn’t need our help. They never blinked. India’s got millions of activists with an open Internet bandwagon we should all be jumping on, and the next billion will go to the company that figures out how to work with them.

[Cory Doctorow is an activist, science fiction author and co-editor of the blog Boing Boing]
[Jan 15]