Many users logged on to Facebook today to find a message waiting for them from Free Basics. The simple and seemingly harmless message was asking them to do just one small thing: give consent for Free Basics to Telecom Regulation Authority of India (TRAI).
To make the appeal stronger, it had a humanitarian angle of how it will help connect billions of people to the Internet with just one email from your side to TRAI, without which it will get banned.
#internetDotOrg is back with a name change #freeBasic internet. Dont click & share #Beware #NetNeutrality @facebook pic.twitter.com/dT82DXjt1w
— Rosh (@TekiRosh) December 17, 2015
I hope you were not fooled by it.
Alert your friends to NOT fall into the trap of @facebook in name of Free Internet. Its going to kill #NetNeutrality pic.twitter.com/iNwkABHilk
— Kapil (@kapsology) December 17, 2015
Free Basics is just another name for Internet.org, against which many activist and the common public have been campaigning against for months. Negating the whole concept of ‘Net Neutrality‘ and giving the power of your Internet to just one platform, Free Basics can run over many entrepreneurial dreams before they even begin.
In his last visit to India, Mark Zuckerberg had strongly campaigned for Internet.org in India and on December 9, the government asked public for their opinion on the issue.
The guerrilla tactics by Facebook managed to anger many people out there who are making sure that Free Basics does not become a reality in India. People took to Twitter to express their dissent:
When #NetNeutrality ends see what will happen, So plz don’t support free internet by #facebook . @neutrality_in https://t.co/84Qk7OKmIR
— Vinod Lathe (@vinodlathe) December 17, 2015
Facebook’s misrepresentation of the #NetNeutrality/#SaveTheInternet arguments as anti-poor is so cynical.
— Peter Griffin (@zigzackly) December 17, 2015
.@MikeatFacebook Sleep well Mike! Half d ppl “supporting” #NetNeutrality don’t even know the real implication of d term. #DistortedReality
— Somil Agrawal (@somilagrawal) December 17, 2015
Facebook’s new trick to shut down #NetNeutrality in India. Send a msg to TRAI, but tell them we DON’T want this! pic.twitter.com/lScPOuVpOi
— VISHAL DADLANI (@VishalDadlani) December 17, 2015
People, stop signing up blindly for FB’s ‘free basics’ campaign. It goes against the principle of #NetNeutrality. Plz spread the word.
— Sneha Mahale (@randomcards) December 17, 2015
“Free Basics” sounds like a re-packaged https://t.co/dalyt5j5Ou. Well done TRAI. #NetNeutrality
— Kya Sahi Kya Galat (@_ShazL) December 17, 2015
Posts like these are becoming common on Facebook with people campaigning against Free Basics and people sought to mediums like Reddit to spread the message:
With just two weeks remaining for the Facebook campaign to end and TRAI to exercise a decision on the issue, let’s make sure #NetNeutrality lives.