Facebook’s free Internet initiative is exploitation disguised as charity

You’re probably long-since familiar with the basic dispute: Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are offering free “internet” to India’s poor, with the caveat that it comes through Facebook and only includes a limited list of Facebook-approved sites (although technically anyone can apply to join). This, Zuckerberg argues, is a charitable mission to help bring the next billion internet users online. Critics counter that it’s a violation of net neutrality, giving the poor access to a walled garden that isn’t the real internet and that’s meant to turn new internet users into Facebook users. Zuckerberg seems to be baffled by the fact that so many Indians aren’t welcoming his “gift” with open arms. So baffled, in fact, that he recently wrote an op-ed in the Times of India about it. But whatever you think about Zuckerberg’s intentions and Internet.org as an idea, there’s no denying that his article is a patronizing, misleading mess. Zuckerberg’s article begins with a classic example of the false equivalence fallacy. “In every society,” he writes, “there are certain basic services that are so important for people’s wellbeing [sic] that we expect everyone to be able to access them freely.” Libraries, healthcare, education: these are examples of services Zuckerberg says societies agree to provide their citizens.