Topic
Free Basics
31 items.
5 Apr 2025
Blog post
The Cost of Free Basics in India: Does Facebook's 'walled garden' reduce or reinforce digital inequalities?In this essay—written in April 2016 soon after India's Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) upheld net neutrality and effectively banned Free Basics in India— the author uses development theories to study the Free Basics programme. The …
28 Feb 2016
News
Why the Internet is Making India FuriousThe Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in Bangalore is a kind of hacker club for wonks and lawyers obsessed with issues of digital rights and global development. Not exactly the mainstream kids’ lunch table. But the Center was brought …
28 Feb 2016
News
India's ‘Facebook ruling’ is another nail in the coffin of the MNO modelAbility to access 'net from mobe no longer considered a miracle.
27 Feb 2016
News
Why India snubbed Facebook's free Internet offerThe social media giant wanted to give the people of India free access to a chunk of the Internet, but the people weren't interested.
23 Feb 2016
Blog post
Net Neutrality Advocates Rejoice As TRAI Bans Differential PricingIndia would not see any more Free Basics advertisements on billboards with images of farmers and common people explaining how much they benefited from this Facebook project.
15 Feb 2016
News
Zuckerberg's Plan Spurned as India Backs Full Net NeutralityFacebook Inc.’s plans for expansion in India have suffered a major setback.
15 Feb 2016
News
Trai upholds Net Neutrality in setback to Facebook’s Free BasicsTrai says Internet service providers will not be allowed to discriminate on pricing of data access for different web services.
15 Feb 2016
Blog post
Internet FreedomThe modern medium of the web is an open-sourced, democratic world in which equality is an ideal, which is why what is most important is Internet freedom.
15 Feb 2016
News
Facebook’s Free Basics hits snag in IndiaIndian regulators have dealt a major blow to Facebook’s controversial Free Basics online access plan by forbidding so-called differential pricing by internet companies, in effect banning the programme in the country.
14 Feb 2016
Blog post
There is No Such Thing as Free BasicsIndia would not see the rain of Free Basics advertisements on billboards with images of farmers and common people explaining how much they could benefit from this Firefox project. Because the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has …
11 Feb 2016
News
India Sets Strict New Net Neutrality RulesIn India, advocates of net neutrality have welcomed new rules by the telecom regulator that have blocked efforts by Facebook to offer free but limited access to the web in the country’s fast growing Internet market.
11 Feb 2016
Blog post
Facebook's Fall from Grace: Arab Spring to Indian WinterFacebook’s Free Basics has been permanently banned in India! The Indian telecom regulator, TRAI has issued the world’s most stringent net neutrality regulation! To be more accurate, there is more to come from TRAI in terms of net neutrality …
10 Feb 2016
News
India bans Facebook’s ‘free’ Internet for the poorIndia’s telecom regulator said Monday that service providers cannot charge discriminatory prices for Internet services, a blow to Facebook’s global effort to provide low-cost Internet to developing countries.
4 Feb 2016
News
A Megacorp’s Basic InstinctBolstered by academia and civil society, TRAI stands its ground against FB’s Free Basics publicity blitz.
3 Feb 2016
News
India, Egypt say no thanks to free Internet from FacebookALWAR, India — Connecting people to the Internet is not easy in this impoverished farming district of wheat and millet fields, where working camels can be glimpsed along roads that curve through the low-slung Aravalli Hills.
31 Jan 2016
30 Jan 2016
News
Facebook is no charity, and the ‘free’ in Free Basics comes at a priceWho could possibly be against free internet access? This is the question that Mark Zuckerberg asks in a piece for the Times of India in which he claims Facebook’s Free Basics service “protects net neutrality”.
27 Jan 2016
Blog post
ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ନିରାପତ୍ତା ଓ ଗୋପନୀୟତାର କୋକୁଆ ଆଣିବ ଫେସବୁକର ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସThis opinion piece in Odia on Facebook's Free Basics App was published in Your Story. The post highlights several user security and privacy that Free Basics is violating apart from violating net neutrality. It also brings the parallel of …
26 Jan 2016
News
Trai promises final call on differential pricing by month-end after 'lively' open houseThe Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will take a final call on differential pricing by the end of January , its chairman said, describing the open house discussions on the regulator's contentious consultation paper as "lively".
17 Jan 2016
News
Why Indians are turning down Facebook's free internetImagine a billion of the world’s poorest gaining overnight access to health information, education, and professional help — for free. Add to this one rich man who wants to make that dream a reality.
9 Jan 2016
Blog post
Facebook Free Basics: Gatekeeping Powers Extend to Manipulating Public Discourse15 million people have come online through Free Basics, Facebook's zero rated walled garden, in the past year. "If we accept that everyone deserves access to the internet, then we must surely support free basic internet services. Who could …
7 Jan 2016
News
Facebook Free Basics vs Net Neutrality: The top arguments in the debateOn Twitter, there's a whole conversation around Facebook Free Basics and whether zero-rating platforms should be allowed in India. Here's a look at the debate.
6 Jan 2016
News
Zuckerberg's India Backlash Imperils Free Global Web VisionWhen Facebook's co-founder proposed bringing free Web services to India, his stated aim was to help connect millions of impoverished people to unlimited opportunity. Instead, critics have accused him of making a poorly disguised land grab …
6 Jan 2016
News
Nasscom against differential pricing for data servicesThe National Association of Software and Services Companies says it should be the regulator that decides on such content, not firms.
4 Jan 2016
Blog post
କେତେ ମାଗଣା "ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସThis op-ed was published in Odia newspaper "The Samaja" on January 4, 2016. Sunil Abraham and Pranesh Prakash were quoted.
3 Jan 2016
Blog post
Free Basics: Negating net parityResearchers funded by Facebook were apparently told by 92 per cent of Indians they surveyed from large cities, with Internet connection and college degree, that the Internet “is a human right and that Free Basics can help bring Internet to …
3 Jan 2016
News
Facebook’s Free Basics Shuts Down In Egypt, Continuing Troubled RunThe report was published by TV Newsroom on January 1, 2016. Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.
30 Dec 2015
Blog post
Millions of Indians Slam Facebook's ‘Free Basics’ AppIt has been less than two months since the nationwide launch of the Free Basics app in India. The smart phone application (formerly known as Internet.org) offers free access to Facebook, Facebook-owned products like WhatsApp, and a select …
30 Dec 2015
News
Mark Zuckerberg’s India backlash imperils vision for free global webThe growing backlash against Facebook’s Free Basics could threaten the very premise of Internet.org, Mark Zuckerberg’s effort to connect the planet.
29 Dec 2015
News
Start-up India turns the heat on Facebook Free BasicsFacebook launched its "Save Free Basics" campaign last week, asking users to support "digital equality" in India.