What we’ve learned from one year of Internet.org

[Commentary] Facebook is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the launch of Internet.org, its much-hyped initiative to bring Internet access to the world’s unconnected population. So how has Internet.org stacked up against expectations since its initial debut in Zambia in summer 2014? Providing the world with free Internet connectivity. By conventional benchmarks, Internet.org seems to be performing well. After all, more than 9 million people have ventured online as a result of accessing Facebook’s Internet.org mobile app. And the initiative has taken off from its initial launch in Zambia to include a dozen mobile operators and 17 partner countries (including India, Pakistan and Indonesia) spread across three different continents (Asia, Latin America and Africa).

But there have been hiccups along the way -- most notably in India, where the very concept of using the Internet.org app as the way Indians access the Internet has raised troubling questions about Facebook’s role. Is the company a gateway or a gatekeeper? Facebook claims it’s a gateway, but there’s something that rubs people the wrong way when they are told which sites are free, and which are not, and how they must access them.

[Dominic Basulto is a futurist and blogger based in New York City]