If you log in to Facebook today, among the many notifications you receive, you might see one exhorting you to ‘Act now to save Free Basics in India’. “Instead of giving people access to some basic Internet services for free, they demand that people pay equally to access all Internet services, even if that means 1 billion people can’t afford to access any services”. The pre-written message says that over a billion Indians would be hurt by the shutting down of its Free Basics program.
In the U.S., Facebook has been an advocate for net neutrality, the concept that service providers we pay for internet access shouldn’t be able to control the internet’s actual content. But in India and other countries where Facebook wants to roll out, Facebook appears to be the kind of service provider they’re fighting at home.