essay

Natsumi Fukuda

IBS3345

Facebook Case1

Issues

Issue1 -Facebook’s the Internet.org initiative need very high costs, and also takes time for making profits.

The Internet.org initiative is a project that bringing affordable Internet services to less developed countries for economic betterment. Today, the two thirds of global population still do not have net connectivity (PC1-2). This initiative is taking effect in Philippines, Zambia, Rwanda, Paraguay, Tanzania, India, Indonesia and other developing countries, and it improves infrastructures as well (PC1-1). Facebook expects that bringing basic Internet facilities to those countries have opportunities growing the users and economy in the future. However, different countries need different technologies, which can fit different regions, platforms, and environments (PC1-3). Facebook requires working together with global companies to overcome the barriers of companies.

Even though the initiative might be going to connect to Facebook’s future revenues, it is huge investments for the companies, and at the same time it takes long times to produce the results. In fact, Facebook has invested $1 billion into accessibility initiatives over the last few years (Tech Crunch). In the contemporary business environment, variable and unsteady condition causes strong anxiety.

Issue2- Criticisms about the initiative via the Internet News articles and blogs might keep on a string.

On the Internet, many criticisms were raised against the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s statement about the Internet.org. He described the initiative as non-profit and humanitarian aid activity (PC1.4). Therefore, some Internet contributors misunderstood and stated that the initiative is a non-profit project on its sites, so wrong information spread on the Internet. The Internet.org is one of the huge investments of Facebook that provide Internet accessibility to less developed country to increase the company’s users and it becomes profitable in the long run (PC1.4). Therefore, critics claimed that the initiative was venture humanitarianism and Facebook’s gateway drug (PC1.4). People who do not know much about the initiative spread the rumor more and more.

In addition, critics claimed that the initiative violates the principle of net neutrality. The Internet.org provides a free Internet accessibility for the developing countries to allow access the social networking services and other services, such as education, health care, and local news, and also it levies different charges for various apps (PC1-5). Therefore, the initiative has limited access to the information, because the different price plans change the access to different websites and get different information. In fact, the Bloomberg Technology remarked that the Internet.org violated Internet rules, and criticize what the Internet site should be (Bloomberg).

Bibliography

https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/20/facebook-internet-org/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-28/zuckerberg-makes-personal-appeal-in-india-for-free-net-service