Thursday, February 11, 2016

"FREE" ... But with Strings Attached 0_0

Do you remember the huge hoardings hanging on the walls of shops and malls that shout out "FREE!! FREE!! FREE!!" but then have a small clause in insignificant font size below them that states the conditions on it?!....
Many of us fall for it at-least once to realize what it is or maybe learn from others who already fell for it... Yeah I was one going to be one of the victims.. almost on the verge of giving in to the idea of "Free" but then, fortunately I got to see the flip side of it.. And no I am not talking about shopping anymore ... its about the "Free Basics" of Facebook.
Once upon a time, FB stood as a revolutionary social networking site that stood by the concept of universality and positive globalization with minimal 'ad-pop-ups' on your screen. Then all of us got so addicted to it that most of us gave into the idea of Zuckerberg's idea of free internet to the poor. Especially when his marketing team craftily advocated it as an  ALTRUISTIC motive of Mark to reach out to the poor and internet-deprived lot of the world. It seemed really like a noble motive , however, they forgot to mention two things :

  1. There will be pretty restricted access which bars audio & video sites, surfing through search engines, social networking sites(except fb ofcourse), and a huge chunk of internet (to be crude) in the name of BASIC INTERNET. Only FB gets to decide whats BASIC INTERNET.
  2. It might look ok at first but when we think a little on it, it shows many loopholes in the ALTRUISTIC theory. It is no less than colonizing the choice of people and slowly gaining monopoly over internet, in the process, killing the basic nature of internet being the only space which is close to "absolute freedom of choice".

HOW ?

  • The pricing... Its offered at zero price, but, only on few select set of sites. That means a large chunk of people will be driven to use only that part of internet which FB permits them to..It says the choice is left to people to opt for free basics or not and they can choose to browse restricted sites( in the name of Free Basics) by paying a small amount. This amounts to violation of net neutrality. Net neutrality in its simplest terms says no part of internet can be priced differently.
  • This means I might have to pay extra for wanting to blog on internet one day..
  • It will give push to the idea of differential pricing to all ISP providers.


THE PROVOCATION:

What shocked me even more is how FB used its platform to show its muscle power in the form of numbers. When the TRAI(Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) asked for opinions of all Indians on the issue of free basics, Mark and team  tried to flood the opinion gates with peoples love towards Free Basics by dubbing their opinion as truth.. The gate was to express ones concerns regarding Free Basics.Its nothing less than misleading the public by presenting ones opinions as truth.
It also makes me think that the huge power over the people should come with some sense of responsibility too... who ensures responsibility? hmmm.. we will discuss that some other time.!

SHOCKER:

The shocker this time is how TRAI, a governmental body stood up against a social networking giant like Facebook(for whatever reasons) . That was just a WOOOOW!!!
I mean I never expected a govt organization to be an active part of the generation X issues , especially relating to the virtual world. The way it stood its ground on net neutrality, showcasing the huge potential of monopoly and exploitation in future, against the sheer numbers of mass hysteria driven mails of FB customers, ah that was commendable.
While many of the nations gave in , succumbing to "Atleast something is better than nothing", rather than looking at the flip-side, Indian citizens proved to be far more sophisticated than Mark would have guessed.
Though the awareness campaign was on a small scale , by techies, students and you-tubers like AIB,  it was creative enough to give a complete picture to the people.

RESULT:
For now, TRAI has been successful at stopping Free Basic's entry into the Indian market. It also suggested that we need to start making laws regulating internet pricing and maintaining net neutrality to prevent harm rather than acting after it.

It might sound long and boring and stuff but I was late to know and you have a right to know so I had to write this up :)


P.S:
This note is only my reflection and opinion on the burning issue of net neutrality violations expressed in my own terms ^_^ ...
There could be over simplification of facts and biased statements found.