Fear of Facebook colonising digital space looms over IT capital

Net neutrality requires Internet be maintained as an open platform on which network providers treat all content, applications and services equally.

Bengaluru, the information technology capital of India, is vehemently opposing social network Facebook’s controversial Internet service as it fears a ‘digital colonisation by the West.’

The people opposing Facebook Internet service, called Free Basics, include startup entrepreneurs, students, activists and tech employees. Most of them are based in Bengaluru, which is home to approximately 3,100 to 4,900 active tech startups and is ranked 15th-best startup ecosystem in the world.

They said India has just woken up to the advantages of mobile Internet and any such splitting will create a ‘have versus have not’s list' in the country.

“At the start of startup India revolution, we cannot have some Indian developers and entrepreneurs blocked by large corporates to access consumer,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of mobile Internet company One97 and mobile payments firm Paytm. “If telecom operators are allowed to split Internet, it will be a near death experience for Indian startup eco system.”

Mr. Sharma is among many tech entrepreneurs and employees, who are venting off their resentment on platforms like Twitter and Medium, a blog-publishing platform.

SaveTheInternet.in, an Indian web petition portal to support the principle of net neutrality in India, is also very actively opposing Free Basics.

Free Basics allows customers to access selected social networks, and services like healthcare, education and job listings from their phones without a data plan. However startup entrepreneurs are opposing the service. They said that it violates net neutrality, a concept that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.

Net neutrality requires that the Internet be maintained as an open platform, on which network providers treat all content, applications and services equally, without discrimination. This is emphasised by over 60 groups and experts across the world on www.thisisnetneutrality.org.

“The practice of zero rating (toll-free data or sponsored data) is not compatible with this (net neutrality), since it allows companies to act as 'stronger gatekeepers' and discriminate against the open Internet,” said Raman Jit Singh Chima, global policy director at Access Now, an international non-profit, human rights, public policy, and advocacy group dedicated to an open and free Internet.

Free Basics developers can’t innovate on technology without the permission of Facebook, experts said. Telecom operators and Facebook also need to approve services. Entrepreneurs say there is a need for unbiased, equal Internet that treats all developers same.

“No developer should need to take a license or apply to someone to bring new idea to Indians or any one in the world,” said Mr. Sharma of Paytm. He said any segregation of the Internet into fast and slow, free or paid, app or web will undermine Prime Minister Narendra Modi's digital India program.

VoIP

A key aspect of the Internet is that a user can choose to visit any website and access any service. In Free Basics, Facebook has decided voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and video are not good for users, so they will not have them.

Since Google hasn’t signed up as a partner with Facebook, users cannot access it. This also includes any of the billions of websites that haven't partnered with Facebook.

“In sociology, this locus of decision-making ability is called ‘agency’,” said Kiran Jonnalagadda, founder of Bengaluru-based tech community HasGeek and one of the key members of the SaveTheInternet.in campaign.

He said Free Basics shifts ‘agency’ (who has decision making rights) from the end user to Facebook. But India’s constitution guarantees ‘agency’ to each citizen, which is why they have fundamental rights and universal franchise. “Free Basics wants to take it away,” said Mr. Jonnalagadda.

Experts say even more worrying is the fact that Facebook wants this right to take away agency enshrined in law. This is why they’re lobbying Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) so heavily. While Facebook may claim to be benign, once it is legally approved, others will abuse it for private gain, according to the experts.

“This is why we’re calling it ‘Digital Colonialism, the exploitation of resources while denying rights,” said Mr. Jonnalagadda.

He is also of view that Free Basics, like all forms of zero rating, comes from the same school of thought that considers a 'benevolent dictatorship' better than democracy for progress.

“In India we’ve seen this taken to the extreme once with the emergency. We don’t want any further evidence of the harm possible,” said Mr. Jonnalagadda.

Sharad Sharma, co-founder of Bengaluru-based software product think tank iSPIRT said that it is fine for companies to sponsor free access to their Internet in general. “But, consumers should have choice of using any telco provider and still get the benefit,” said Mr. Sharma.

Facebook had earlier collaborated with telecommunications company Reliance Communications to provide its proposed ‘Free Basics’ plan. However, TRAI has told Reliance Communications to delay the launch of Free Basics.

Special deal

Mr. Sharma of iSPIRT said telecos should not have special deal like the partnership between Reliance Communications and Facebook to provide free Internet. “This violates the fundamental net neutrality principle,” he said.

He said companies should pay money, data time or anything else to the consumer directly by using tools like Gigato, a data-sponsoring app. These tools reimburse users for data without violating the net neutrality.

Meanwhile, India also witnessed street-level protests in Gachibowli, a major IT suburb of Hyderabad. The protestors were sitting under a tent and were trying to discredit Facebook’s Free Basics initiative.

The Free Software Movement of India (FSMI) organised protests in several towns across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh with a demand to scrap it.

The members are trying to convince people about their stand through various social media initiatives. They said people who have signed up to support the online campaign of ‘Free Basics’ can reverse their decision by visiting their website 'saynotofreebasics.fsmi.in'

This week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made renewed pitch for its Free Basics Internet service saying it protects net neutrality. Mr.Zuckerberg whose Facebook is spending billions of dollars on projects to deliver Internet to under-served areas using satellites, drones and lasers, appeared on a video to personally promote Free Basics. He also wrote a personal appeal in one of the newspapers.

India tops Facebook’s list of content restriction requests

Facebook has restricted access to over 15,000 pieces of information on its website in India during the first six months of 2015 — the highest for any country, following requests from the government and law enforcement agencies.

“We restricted access in India to content reported primarily by law enforcement agencies and the India Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology because it was anti-religious and hate speech that could cause unrest and disharmony within India,” Facebook said.

In its Government Requests Report, the social networking platform said the number of pieces of content restricted by India stood at 15,155 in January-June 2015. The number is significantly higher compared to 5,832 in July-December 2014 and 4,960 requests in January-June 2014.

There is an increase in content restrictions and government requests for data globally.

The amount of content restricted for violating local law stood at 20,568 worldwide, more than doubling from the second half of 2014, when the social networking firm took down 9,707 pieces of content.

Turkey had the second highest number of content restricted at 4,496, followed by France (295), Israel (195), Germany (188) and Austria (170).

India is also ranked second, just behind the U.S., for government requests for access to information on users and accounts.

Facebook said it received 5,115 total requests for data on 6,268 accounts or users from the Indian government. It added that percentage of requests where some data were produced stood at 45.32 per cent during January-June 2015. For the U.S., the number stood at 17,577 concerning 26,579 accounts.

The social networking major, however, added, “Facebook does not provide any government with “back doors” or direct access to people’s data. We scrutinise each request we receive for legal sufficiency, whether from an authority in the U.S., Europe, or elsewhere. If a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back hard and will fight in court, if necessary.”

Facebook must change real names policy

 A group of 74 civil rights organizations from across the world, including nine from India, have written an open letter to Facebook proposing changes in its "authentic identity" policy or "real names" policy.

The coalition has raised concerns about the policy affecting the freedom of expression, safety of dissidents in repressive regimes, and user privacy among other issues. The letter suggests policy changes, while stating that they believe the policy should be scrapped altogether.




Facebook has responded saying they are reviewing the suggestions, while asserting the need for such a policy to avoid impersonation and bullying. The signatories are from the US, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Canada, Serbia, Mexico and other countries. Among the notable signatories are American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Human Rights Watch, and US-based Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Indian signatories include Computer Society of India, Digital Empowerment Foundation, and Internet Democracy Project.

Facebook requires that users make accounts on the website with their authentic name and birthday. It doesn't accept nicknames, special characters, symbols, and abusive words in names. A violation of this rule can be reported with a 'report abuse' button by any user.