
Facebook initiates blitzkrieg ad campaign for Free Basics in India - jace
http://mashable.com/2015/12/23/facebook-free-basics-net-neutrality-india/
======
r0h1n
From users accidentally supporting [1] Free Basics; to Facebook asking
American and Canadian users to email India's telecom regulator in "error" [2];
to even dead people supporting Free Basics [3], it's all part of Facebook's
philanthropic efforts in India.

[1]
[https://twitter.com/singersuchi/status/677734574319767552](https://twitter.com/singersuchi/status/677734574319767552)

[2] [https://recode.net/2015/12/21/facebook-accidentally-asks-
u-s...](https://recode.net/2015/12/21/facebook-accidentally-asks-u-s-users-to-
support-free-basics-in-india/)

[3]
[https://twitter.com/grondmaster/status/677797484781957120](https://twitter.com/grondmaster/status/677797484781957120)

Edited: added line spacing

------
vinayak
In Soviet Rus^H^H Most large corps have a dirty tricks dept, but in Capitalist
USA, dirty tricks dept has FB #NetNeutrality #SaveTheInternet

FB is going all out to promote it's rebranded Internet.org initiative (now
named Free Basics) to capture and lock in poor user on the platform. Since
it's first attempt was thwarted, they have now brought out their dirty tricks
department to "influence" or (rather misinform - a better word to describe the
situation) Indian citizens. It has bought out front-page ads on popular
newspapers, hoarding on trafficked roads and misleading ads on FB and youtube
to do a sneaky campaign to mislead people to support the initiative.

------
nileshtrivedi
Wow! How much money has FB spent so far on advertising this "philanthropic"
service?

~~~
jace
One estimate said 50 crore rupees ($7.5m), another $20 million. We don't know
for sure since neither Facebook nor the advertising industry association is
willing to reveal actual figures.

------
gnurag
So, Facebook says they "fixed" the issue of showing notifications to people
outside India -- How exactly would they fix this? If an email is delivered to
TRAI's mailbox, it stays delivered, doesn't it?

