Re: India regulator pillories Facebook over Free Basics lobbying - BBC news

Thanks to you and Barnibrata.

The FB actions shows what they can do with their platform. As mentioned,
imagine consistently lobbying for a political party A to the detriment of
other parties and so party A wins the elections. I do agree that TRAI
should be assisted more to ensure that the Internet does remain "neutral".
EU is looking into this and it now looks more likely that all EU citizen's
data must be stored in EU (and not US). Not many realise that the rule of
the land where data centres are located applies and not where the data was
gathered. So what happens to Indian user's data?

I remember reading somewhere that in the future, with the exponential rise
of social media (and Internet), it will be the companies and not countries
who would rule the people and FB just showed it can do it. More than 6
million "clicks" for their product!

What happened to Google's idea of really providing free wifi access with
the "net neutrality" at 400+ railway stations? Has it stalled in the
bureaucratic labyrinth?

On 20 January 2016 at 14:14, parminder <[email protected]> wrote:

> Facebook itself is guilty of violating of 'platform neutrality', of which
> net neutrality is a sub type, in the manner in which it used its platform
> to launch a political campaign in its own favour.. The dangers on such a
> thing for Indian democracy are obvious, as also pointed out in the TRAI
> letter
>
> Last week I wrote an oped in The Hindu which inter alia addresses this
> issue
> 'What Free Basics did not intend to do'
> <http://www.itforchange.net/What_Free_Basics_Did_Not_Intend_To_Do>
>
> I think, TRAI should be formally approached to examine this case and ban
> such political campaigns by platform owners, when such a platform is of a
> monopolistic character as FB is.
>
> parminder
>
> On Wednesday 20 January 2016 06:30 PM, Banibrata Dutta wrote:
>
> Fundamental, well founded and strong arguments there.
>
> TRAI letter to FB:
> http://trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/Miscelleneus/Document/201601190319214139629TRAI_letter_to_FB_dated_18_01_2016.pdf
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 20, 2016 at 2:12 PM, Kiritkumar Lathia < <[email protected]>
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> A little bit more on the objections raised by IIT and IIS professors
>> (total 50+):
>>
>> ... The academics said in a statement that the Free Basics plan was "a
>> lethal combination which will lead to total lack of freedom on how Indians
>> can use their own public utility, the Internet".
>> [image: line break]
>>
>> The professors say there are three key problems
>> <http://scroll.in/article/778805/full-text-facebooks-free-basics-will-limit-internet-freedom-say-50-faculty-of-iits-and-iisc> with
>> Facebook's plans:
>>
>>    - Facebook assumes control of defining what a "basic" service is.
>>    - Facebook would be able to decrypt the contents of the "basic" apps
>>    on its servers. This flaw is not visible to the lay person as it's a
>>    technical detail, but it has deep and disturbing implications.
>>    - The term "free" in "free basics" is a marketing gimmick. If
>>    Facebook gets to decide what costs how much, in effect Indians will be
>>    surrendering their digital freedom, and freedom in the digital economy, to
>>    Facebook.
>>
>>
>> So all communications decryted by FB - something not even governments can
>> do -  so there goes privacy for profits and of course it would be "free and
>> basic" if it brings revenue stream to FB.
>>
>> Is it not wonderful (sic)?
>>
>> On 20 January 2016 at 09:01, Kiritkumar Lathia < <[email protected]>
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Follow up on Arun's previous e-mail chain; for once TRAI has taken the
>>> correct step to protect "net neutrality" which is important for not only
>>> India. As many have mentioned, there is no free lunch and this type of
>>> business by false advertising ("Free Basics") is not only morally wrong and
>>> should be regarded as falsifying a product (access of Internet for free but
>>> does not give access to Internet - only some selected parts of it). I hope
>>> it prevails and does not allow Internet cannibalisation . Any news on what
>>> happened to free Internet access from Google at train stations?
>>>
>>> From the BBC news article:
>>> Quote:
>>> " But those campaigning to protect net neutrality in India suggest data
>>> providers should not favour some online services over others by offering
>>> cheaper or faster access. At least 50 professors of the Indian
>>> Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science also supported
>>> the campaign to protect net neutrality, saying that the Free Basics plan
>>> was "a lethal combination which will lead to total lack of freedom on how
>>> Indians can use their own public utility, the Internet".
>>> End Quote.
>>>
>>> Best wishes,
>>> Kirit
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> regards,
> Banibrata
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/bdutta
> http://twitter.com/edgeliving
>
>
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