
India's telecom regulator cracks down on Facebook for its Free Basics campaign [pdf] - spothuga
http://trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/Miscelleneus/Document/201601190319214139629TRAI_letter_to_FB_dated_18_01_2016.pdf
======
scorpion032
Lets get this straight.

1\. Facebook made users email the regulator on a subject of "tangential
relevance" \- saying they support Free Basics, while the questions asked were
on Differential Pricing

2\. These emails were unsubscribed by TRAI, and 12 MM of those 14 MM emails
weren't actually sent - probably because they went out to an empty mailing
list.

3\. The emails that were sent, were sent by misleading people into "supporting
digital equality".

4\. Facebook choose to represent and speak for all of the millions that had
chosen to "support digital equality" which was questioned by the regulator.

5\. Facebook didn't bother to inform the users that originally answered the
"opinion poll" of "supporting digital equality" of the questions asked by TRAI
even after having been asked to and extending the consultation deadline for
the same.

6\. Facebook choose to spend $44MM on this campaign in this process. (and an
obviously unknown but really large sum for lobbying!)

I'm no policy expert or a strategy consultant, but if there ever has been an
epitome for "shooting oneself in the foot", this would be it.

~~~
firasd
I think Facebook chose this type of campaign after seeing how
[http://savetheinternet.in](http://savetheinternet.in) rallied support for
pro-net neutrality responses to an earlier consultation paper, from an
uncommonly broad audience for a telecom policy issue.

The Save The Internet campaign (both then and this time) had some important
differences though: their default template actually answered the questions the
regulator asked, and each email was sent from the respondent's own email app
(using mailto or the equivalent) instead of being sent by the platform.

~~~
nileshtrivedi
Don't forget: SaveTheInternet actually TOLD people that they are sending
emails to TRAI. Facebook did not even do that! Which is why the Advertising
Standards Council is investigating FB's campaign.

------
firasd
Harshest sentence: "your urging has the flavor of reducing this meaningful
consultative exercise designed to produce informed decisions in a transparent
manner into a crudely majoritarian and orchestrated opinion poll."

~~~
it_learnses
Haha awesome. Somebody put it on a plaque and mail it to mr. zuckerberg.

~~~
hellbanner
If you want something done right, do it yourself.

------
aws_ls
I am loving the Net-neutrality activism in India, from a wide bunch of folks:
Startup folks (HNers & the likes of Mahesh Murthy); OSS folks (likes of
HasGeek/Kiran Jonalagadda);even the entertainment industry(AIB, Vishal Dadlani
etc)...so for the third time now, the message has been driven across that, _we
are not sheep_. You can fool the over-eager politicians, in their willingness
to be seen as tech-savvy (even tech visionaries!), by just being overly
pleased to have photo-ops with FB founders and the likes. But not everyone.

Thankfully, there is enough critical base of skepticism, over here. These kind
of days, make me really proud as an Indian Internet user.

PS: On another note, welcome the entry of Netflix. Already became a member and
enjoying it. I hope they remain very-very careful of not disturbing the sacred
net-neutrality waters.

------
chatmasta
So Facebook complained that its emails were blocked?

There is some really, really delicious irony in that complaint... perhaps if
Facebook paid for higher priority mail delivery, their emails would deliver.
:)

I've always found these "email your congressmen!" campaigns to be largely
ineffective and even counterproductive. The FCC opened net neutrality for
public comment and received a similar response, i.e. hundreds of thousands of
form emails sent to them. The emails bury any signal under gigabytes of noise.
The only result is that regulators will ignore _all_ emails, not just the form
letters. The form letters are basically a regulatory DDOS campaign.

Add to that the fact that the campaigns are orchestrated by large players in
tech, e.g. Facebook, and they lose all credibility. A megaphone and an agenda
should not be sufficient tools to subvert public discourse.

~~~
MaulingMonkey
> The emails bury any signal under gigabytes of noise.

I would hope they could be deduped (and perhaps counted), at least after
receiving.

~~~
abricot
You are asking the congressmen themselves to do deduplication and counting.
Not hard to see how that would fare.

~~~
MaulingMonkey
Or to have people to handle that kind of thing for them. Preferably using
software to automate the process.

------
gopalv
You can't astro-turf a groundswell - I think that's the whole reason TRAI is
ticked off.

I applaud them catching onto this, because that the indian "license raj" has
its downsides as well as upsides. This the first time I'm seeing the
regulatory powers actively fighting the "the first hit is free" tactic.

The ideal approach would be to meter it as usage and freebasics getting a
fixed bandwidth fraction until the pricing kicks in.

Also, it helped that the non-FB movement explained things better - the AIB ads
to save the internet[1] were hilarious.

[1] - [http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-
techno...](http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-
technology/video-aib-on-why-facebooks-free-basics-is-against-net-neutrality/)

------
goddamnsteve
The hardest part is that, there are Indian minds at Facebook designing these
schemes for India. Such a shame on them.

~~~
winter_blue
That's not very strange. In every country there are people working for their
own benefit against the good of the nation. It's called the _tragedy of the
commons_.

This kind of thing is actually all too common in the United States. One
(rather shocking) example of this is/was the promotion of Oxycodone, a drug
derived from Opium to doctors all over the US for common cases of pain.[1]
Purdue Pharma spent millions promoting the use of Oxycodone for minor cases of
pain, and misrepresenting its addictiveness. This has more or less been
responsible for the heroin epidemic in the US, with the consequence being
thousands upon thousands of lives being destroyed (first through addiction,
and then by death).

And I might be wrong here, but in my experience, the vast majority Americans
actually care a lot lot more about the common good than Indians. In my
experience, a lot of Indians (in India) will happily screw over their
neighbors and their country for their own selfish gain. Conscientious Indians
are hard to come by. The few who stand up for what is right, get killed[2] or
trampled over[3].

One glaring example of this is how people in India have no problems trashing
the streets of the very cities/towns they live in. The streets of most major
cities in India look like steaminggarbage dumps. I suppose they think: "What
do I care? It's public property, not my home." And they litter the streets
with garbage.

If a country like the United States, where the majority people are actually a
lot more conscientious, moral, and patriotic[4] than most countries has
problems of a few screwing over the majority, then there's nothing shocked
about.

[1] [http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-new-
he...](http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-new-heroin-
epidemic/382020/)

[2] Satyendra Dubey:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyendra_Dubey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyendra_Dubey)

[3] One of my relatives worked for an Indian government agency. He wouldn't
stand for any corruption, and fought against from the inside. The people in
the agency literally ruined his life. He even sued some of these people, and
the case went all the way to the Supreme Court of India, and he actually won
the case -- but the compensation he won for all that he had went through was a
pittance. He ended up dying in his early 50s from a heart attack, most likely
from the stress from all of this. His entire life was consumed by this.

The level of corruption in government in India is staggering. From the highest
to the lowest levels of government, everyone cares just about themselves (and
their families) and is a Judas to everyone else, their neighbors, and the
nation as a whole. It is very sad.

[4] Being patriotic should mean actually caring about the country and people
in the country -- that manifests itself in the person's behavior. Not empty
words. By this measure, a lot of Indians living in India are some of the least
patriotic people in the world.

~~~
flux988
Your comment is just full of wild generalizations and prejudice. It has
absolutely no basis at all - there is no emperical evidence that India is any
more corrupt than any country with a similar per-capita - on the contrary
there is evidence to believe that India is a lot less corrupt than a lot of
other countries with a much higher per-capita (China).

The examples that you mentioned are picked out to just confirm your bias, lack
of understanding and maybe a personal inferiority complex - the narrative can
be constructed for any country on the planet by picking out facts.

The Indian grandfather who was paralyzed recently in the US - the police
officer has been acquited - does that mean that the US police force is
incompetent or the jury racist. Going by your arguments its both - and most
conscientious Americans havent dont anything to fix it.

Indians (in India) will happily screw over their neighbours - but Indians in
America won't ? Is it because they administer a special serum when you take
the long flight which makes them conscientious or is it just a convenient
argument.

The squalor in India's cities has nothing to do with being conscientious - it
is simply because most Indian cities have one of the lowest per-capita civic
spends in the world (because of extreme poverty) and lack of autonomous
municipal govts.

~~~
winter_blue
I doubt China is as (or more) corrupt than India. There is ton of corruption
in China, yes, but the people at the top do seem to care about China doing
well economically, and about improving the living standards of the people in
their country. Could you say that's true for India?

I'm speaking from experience, and based on what I've seen. In statistics, you
don't survey the entire population, but rather you take a small sample. I
think I've a statistically significant sampling of experiences.

The police-related issues in the US is a serious threat to personal liberty,
and there are a lot of people fighting for it to be corrected. You are
_entirely wrong_ when you say "and most conscientious Americans havent dont
anything to fix it" \-- the people have responded overwhelmingly, and there is
huge push and fight underway to correct the moral/social injustice. Just read
the news.

I said "Indians (in India)" because, yes, there is a difference. If you
surround yourself Americans, and spend time with them on a regular basis, you
will naturally, over the course of time become more like them. If you always
stick around other Indians, then you will not change. I've had bad experiences
with non-family Indian people. Various Indian friends I've had at various
points in my life have screwed me over / been a bad friend to me at a much
higher frequency than my American friends. These days, I keep people who are
_too Indian_ (culturally / identity-wise) at an arm's distance, and avoid
getting too close to them.

I've just had really lopsided experiences. The majority of my American friends
have been genuinely been friends. In times of trouble, they've sincerely
empathized and actually tried to help. A bunch of Indian "friends" I had in
the past, would laugh when I got into unfortunate circumstances, and they
certainly would not try to help. There are good and bad people on both sides,
but the majority of Americans I've come in contact with, have been a much
better people, character-wise.

Regarding the squalor, your "poverty" argument is cop-out. Cities like
Bangalore, which are filled with tech companies, still look like steaming
garbage dumps. Why? Because the people don't care. The cost to clean up the
city, and keep it clean on a regular basis, would be tiny. Simply collecting
50 rupees per month from the residents of Bangalore who make above a certain
wage, would be, by far, sufficient to make the city speck and clean. What
makes me irate is total apathy of the majority of these people about the
cleanliness of the public spaces of the cities they live in. I've seen people
in nice cars, open their window, and toss garbage onto the sidewalks/streets.
It's pathetic and disgusting. It tells something about their
character/culture.

~~~
winter_blue
On second thought, I take my words back. I need to reflect a bit more on this.

I don't think it's right to base my opinion on these certain limited things.

~~~
flux988
I understand where all this is coming from, and I can share very detailed
counter points to each of your claims but maybe you are getting there
yourself.

You are taking a purely 'Etic' view of things and supplementing with an 'Emic'
view typically gives a better perspective.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emic_and_etic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emic_and_etic)

------
akshayB
Free Basics - Facebook claims that any company or service provider can join
this and if that is the case why don't they give the power to India's people
to decide who can or cannot join. As of now Facebook has the final word in
rejecting or accepting your application which is just wrong. They can easily
funnel in USA companies (or Facebook invested startups) in India which compete
against Indian companies. This is a nasty move by Facebook so they can
dominate the world's biggest open market (world 17% population).

~~~
akshayB
One more thing to add if Facebook loves honors net neutrality in USA, why are
they hellbent on breaking it in other countries.

------
denzil_correa
Here is the Facebook's letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI) that garnered this response.

[http://trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/Miscelleneus/Document/20160...](http://trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/Miscelleneus/Document/201601190317167889645Facebook_letter_dated_13th_January_2016.pdf)

Here are earlier communications between TRAI and Facebook

[http://trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/PressRealease/Document/PR-1...](http://trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/PressRealease/Document/PR-12012016.pdf)

~~~
withinrafael
If you zoom into that blacked out dropbox URL in the PDF, you can still see
the characters... yikes.

~~~
stordoff
Poor redaction aside (most of it is fairly clear at the default size the PDF
loaded on my system), why would Facebook host the list of commenters (13.5M
people, according to Facebook) and comments on Dropbox? I'd've thought they
would host it on their own infrastructure.

~~~
jace
There is no contact information in those files (there's a bunch of them). Just
a date, name and (template) comment. Mostly pointless.

------
chris_wot
Earth to Facebook: astroturfing entirely sucks, it was a very 90s tactic and
it's an absolutely shit way of convincing anyone of anything.

Frankly, you look like you are bullies, and you've pissed off a lot of people
by absolutely misleading them into signing your petition, to the point where
you actually tricked many folks directly.

There are many, many people who distrust Facebook. I used to be on the fence,
but now I see just what Facebook is like, I have to work out if I'm going to
continue with an account. Frankly, it would be great if Facebook would wither
and die on the vine (IMO, of course!) and a more ethical social media platform
takes over. I can but live in hope.

------
pflats
Every time I read another article on this, it makes me more skeptical about
Zuckerberg's for-profit "charity".

~~~
enraged_camel
You should be skeptical. It's a private charity, which is another way of
saying Zucketbergs control it. So it was just a way for them to avoid
taxation.

The most awful part about it though was the way they spun it into a PR
campaign by involving their daughter in the whole story.

~~~
arjun1296
What Zuckerberg said was that the new company is a LLC company which they will
be liable to pay taxes. However, the company is controlled by the couples.

Disappointing part was the role played by the media singing "All hail Zuck"
misleading people saying he is "donating" to "charity"

That was something uncalled for. Indians may be backward in many things. This
kind of PR is not going to be enough to fool average educated Indians.

------
malchow
The funny (or unfortunate, if you're FB) component is that if the FB form
response in favor of Free Basics had been written more elegantly, TRAI might
have considered it to be responsive. The TRAI invitation to comment was
winsomely written. It included the following as the final question:

Are there alternative methods/technologies/business models, other than
differentiated tariff plans, available to achieve the objective of providing
free internet access to the consumers? If yes, please suggest/describe these
methods/technologies/business models. Also, describe the potential benefits
and disadvantages associated with such methods/technologies/business models?

A rather nice invitation for people who actually did want to write in in
support of Free Basics.

~~~
atnixxin
Mozilla has equal rating models, mentioned here:
[http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/net-
neutrality...](http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/net-neutrality-
mozilla-suggests-equal-rating/article7177532.ece) also this:
[http://www.medianama.com/2016/01/223-iamai-trai-
submissions-...](http://www.medianama.com/2016/01/223-iamai-trai-submissions-
differntial-pricing/) and this: [http://www.medianama.com/2015/10/223-aircel-
free-internet/](http://www.medianama.com/2015/10/223-aircel-free-internet/)

------
middleclick
The address from where FB is operating is the Taj Mahal hotel in New Delhi
where the lowest room rent is approximately 450 USD per night. Quite
interesting!

~~~
asfandyaar
And this person has two suites at their disposal. A professional lobbyist, I
suppose.

~~~
jace
Said person is an FB employee and director of public policy for India and the
region. I guess she and her staff are the only people working out of Delhi, so
they took a hotel room. FB's India HQ is down south in Hyderabad.

------
shmerl
Meanwhile in US big ISPs erode net neutrality with caps and exemptions while
FCC is doing nothing.

~~~
toomanybeersies
Ironically, the ISPs in the USA are doing this at the same time ISPs in other
countries where caps and exemptions have been the standard are becoming more
free and open.

About 5-10 years ago, most ISPs in New Zealand didn't offer an unlimited
option, or if it was, it wasn't the standard and cost a lot more. Plans
started at about 20 GB (or lower, depending on how far back you go) and went
up from there. There was also unmetered data (usually to servers hosted by the
ISP, very useful for Counter Strike).

Now I think that all ISPs offer an unlimited plan, which is usually about $15
or so more than the capped plan, and capped plans usually offer about 60 GB as
the base amount, which is fine for a lot of light users, who only check their
email and read the news.

Contract free ISPs are also becoming a lot more common, where you don't have a
fixed term contract, and instead just pay monthly.

Another nice thing is that fibre installation is free, as it's paid for by the
government. The NZ government is doing a great job of getting New Zealand
world class internet, we just need more overseas cables now (ones that the NSA
hasn't literally tapped into would be nice too, our main cable literally goes
through an airbase).

------
therelaxist
The one thing that everyone looks over is the fact that Facebook wants
everyone to use their product (both rich and poor). I don't think Free Basics
has much to do with Net Neutrality since they lobbied against it in the US.

Some of the arguments their sales rep puts up when you go to them to place an
ad: 1\. We display ads even if the user does not have a need. 2\. The standard
"Everyone is on facebook" which is not quite true in India.

I eventually stuck with google because I didn't feel my product which is
targeted at farmers would be useful enough on facebook. This whole bullsh!t
campaign is to get all indians on facebook so they can convince advertisers to
sell ads exclusively on FB.

PS: freebasics may be an ad free platform but facebook on freebasics will
definitely not be ad free.

------
option_greek
Facebook has been using so many tricks used by politicians these days that
they might as well register as a political party in India :)

------
suprgeek
Facebook tried to game the "Invited comments" system in an amateurish way and
got spanked. GOOD!

But this should not distract from the fact the there needs to be a substantive
debate about the merits/otherwise of their Free Basics initiative.

In a country like India where millions of people have ZERO access to the full
internet, any effort that provides ANY access - however limited and curated -
should not the shouted down by a vocal subgroup.

If after a meaningful debate the conclusion is that it is better to hope for
eventual full access with zero current access(!) rather than instant limited
access then so be it, but Facebook is not helping its cause with these stupid
shenanigans.

~~~
jags-v
I do think that any attempt to provide access which is limited & curated
should be shouted down , because it is totally disastrous in the long term.
There are other business models which are currently in play , which can be
considered, such as

\- Aircel has free access at a speed of 64kbps (very slow) but still the user
has access to the entirety of the internet , not a walled garden.

\- There is a different model, where user view an ad on a per day basis and
get a certain data limit in return. Mozilla has implemented this. This gives
access to entirety of the internet.

~~~
rspeer
Man, I remember when 33.6kbps was perfectly acceptable for participating in
sites like Slashdot.

I bet websites could provide appropriately low-bandwidth versions more easily
than they could be vetted by Facebook's walled garden.

~~~
jags-v
yep. Most of the sites are heavy because of tracking & user analytics part of
which make make a huge chunk of the data download( pixel tracking , etc.)

------
randyrand
FB PR needs work. But I support a free and optional pared down internet.

------
jrbapna
as somebody who hasn't been following this at all, can someone please explain
all of the hostility toward fb? I get that what fb is offering is far from
ideal, but isn't it slightly better than the status quo of no internet for a
large amount of people? and as Facebook is a business, not a charity,
shouldn't they be able to recoup money on their investment? I imagine giving
free internet access, albeit limited, to the world's soon to be largest
population doesn't come cheap

~~~
jace
Facebook isn't paying for any of it (apart from the developer screening
process and proxy server). They expect their telco partners to bear the
expenses, who naturally have no expectation of recovering it from the poor who
can't afford to pay, and so don't bother to market the service to them. The
telcos market "Free Internet" (and after some backlash "Free Facebook") to
urban youth to lure them away from other telcos. FB's own data says 80% of
users are switchers, not the newly connected.

Facebook's stated intent is one thing, what's actually happening on the ground
is something else.

------
crossdiver
So rewarding to see the epic paternalism from FB smacked down to size.

------
intended
I am very worried about Facebook's behavior.

The history of the Indian NN battle has been-

1) old TRAI head releases an implicitly anti neutrality set of consultation
questions, very close to the end of the consultation period. (The underlying
plan was to have the new rules passed without scrutiny, and the new head of
the regulator would assume office in a month or two. All decisions would be
blamed on the old head - SOP)

2) Nikhil Pahwa among many other individuals, including people on Reddit india
start being vocal about it, (including an MP who brings it up in parliament)

3) these individuals coalesce into a rough group and using Twitter and in
particular AIB's you tube video (Indian comedy group), get the message out.
Millions of emails specifically answering the questions get sent to the
regulator

4) what was assumed to be a slam dunk for telcos, turns into an actual
consultation process, especially with the arrival of the new TRAI head.

5) committee is formed and consultation paper answers/counter comments are
being taken into consideration for policy

\---interlude---

Now comes a new paper - months after the previous NN movement. The topic is on
differential pricing.

This time Facebook learns from the NN movement and opens with a rebranded
Internet.org. Freebasics

Freebasics ostensibly is using the Facebook network to promote itself.
Practically it's the same as Facebook using its network to promote a policy
which it thinks is good for its users.

FBasics follows a huge online campaign with a marketing blitzkreig. (Not even
kidding. There were more ads for Facebook than there were for popular movies
at the time. Multiple hoardings and news paper ads)

In essence, Facebook learnt from the NN movement, and tried to create the same
basic groundswell of support for its plans. It included utterly unethical
onlir surveys which essentially asked "do you agree with saving people:
yes/maybe later".

In sharp contrast - while FB Started strong, the save the Internet coalition
had to do a cold start - they were/are never meant/intend to be a permanent
NGO/movement. Nor are any members activists or professionals lobbyists.

So they didn't have things like opt in mailing lists to reach out for people.
Nor had they anticipated the need to ask people if they could be contacted for
future updates or requests.

Still, people once again coordinated, got the work done and got the message
out - but a much smaller number than before (more arcane discussion topic than
NN) and far less than Facebook managed to pump out.

\-----

The ability of Freebasics to leverage Facebook is _hugely_ worrisome.

If it were not for a technicality - that some marketing honcho misunderstood
the actual message that had to be sent - all of those messages sent to TRAI
would be considered valid, and TRAI would have taken it into account.

A TRAI functionary said it directly day before yesterday - TRAI regrets that
Facebook handled the issue the way it did because it was a great opportunity
for people to let TRAI know what they really wanted. There's a sense of regret
and disappointment at the regulator.

Facebook, learns. As will anyone who paid attention to this.

The next time Facebook, or reliance need to have hell with a consultation
paper, and it moves into the theater of public opinion - they will act
_correctly_.

They will answer the correct questions. They will message more people. They
will improve.

In contrast, the volunteers who decided to take this issue up, won't exist for
other issues or have the necessary ability and man power to match the big
players.

This isn't a win. It's a warning.

\------

Note/ Details have been subsumed into larger points, so specific dates and
sequences may be out of order (such as conversion of Internet.org to FBasics)

~~~
jace
Which is why we the volunteers have figured we need to be better prepared for
Act 3. Stay tuned.

~~~
intended
I noticed. Sup.

------
surds
I am loving this! Smacked hard and flat in the face!

------
bugger_guy
This is epic..fb is turning evil.

~~~
mohsinr
...turning? :) or have turned!

~~~
jessaustin
Can you identify any time in the past when FB's cumulative contributions would
have not been considered evil?

------
mtgx
Meanwhile, Verizon and T-Mobile seem to be walking all over the "strong net
neutrality" rules the FCC passed.

[http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/verizon-wireless-
sel...](http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/verizon-wireless-selling-data-
cap-exemptions-to-content-providers/)

