
How India Pierced Facebook’s Free Basics Program - enigami
https://medium.com/backchannel/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-internet-program-6ae3f9ffd1b4#.r2kfhc1x1
======
koopuluri
The domain in parens next to the title says "medium.com", but the link is
actually on "[https://backchannel.com/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-
in...](https://backchannel.com/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-internet-
program-6ae3f9ffd1b4#.y3rp1jv9m").

Curious how that happened.

~~~
plumeria
Run: curl -IL [https://medium.com/backchannel/how-india-pierced-
facebook-s-...](https://medium.com/backchannel/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-
free-internet-program-6ae3f9ffd1b4#.r2kfhc1x1)

It is because of a "301 Moved Permanently" response code. The URL shows as
"medium.com", because thats the URL saved in the HN database. However when you
open it, your browser follows the redirect.

------
vkou
Calling this free Internet is really giving Facebook too much credit. It was
free access to a select few websites.

~~~
firasd
When this first launched in India a couple months ago, the realization of what
was going on really hit me. I was already opposed to it for net neutrality
reasons, but in practice the program just rolled out Facebook and a few apps
without data charges to everyone, not just the unconnected, which was extra
flagrant. I wrote this: [https://medium.com/@firasd/facebook-s-internet-org-
free-basi...](https://medium.com/@firasd/facebook-s-internet-org-free-basics-
zuckerberg-elides-the-facts-95001d7a0a59)

Also see this: A data-driven argument on why Marc Andreessen is wrong about
Free Basics [https://medium.com/@sumanthr/a-data-driven-argument-on-
why-m...](https://medium.com/@sumanthr/a-data-driven-argument-on-why-marc-
andreessen-is-wrong-about-free-basics-c472184b9682)

The reporter in the main linked article couldn't find one person using Free
Basics who hadn't been on the internet before.

~~~
throwaway60453
Can somebody translate the above post into English? I can't understand a
single sentence.

~~~
firasd
Okay…

1) When Free Basics launched India, the problems with it turned out to be even
worse than I expected. I wrote about how the local marketing (‘Free Facebook’)
and Zuck’s post (‘farmers getting weather information’) had completely
different messaging.

2) I pointed to another article that dove into these issues about who actually
uses Free Basics.

3) The reporter who wrote the article this HN thread is about (“How India
Pierced…”) couldn’t find a single person who was introduced to the internet
through Free Basics.

Does that help?

