However, what it doesn't tell you is that 'Free Basics' is the other name for Internet.Org. It is the same service that net neutrality activists have been fighting against for a year now.
Since its India launch this May, Internet.org had come in for criticism for being a “walled garden” for its limited number of partners and single service provider.
Several internet activists had signed a petition against Facebook's initiative saying that goes against net neutrality and that world's poorest people will only be able to access a limited set of insecure websites and services if Internet.org is implemented.
"We are deeply concerned that Internet.org has been misleadingly marketed as providing access to the full Internet, when in fact it only provides access to a limited number of Internet-connected services that are approved by Facebook and local ISPs. In its present conception, Internet.org thereby violates the principles of net neutrality, threatening freedom of expression, equality of opportunity, security, privacy and innovation," the activists had said in the petition.
Net neutrality activists have said that Facebook's Internet.Org or now 'Free Basics' is a threat to the open, free Internet we’re used to—one that doesn’t discriminate between highly capitalized success stories like Netflix and Google and scrappy new startups that hope to be the next Google or YouTube or Facebook.
Please view the Huffington post's LINK for more details.
