Re: [gaia] fb's Free Basics in India

Facebook have (at least) two questions to answer:

1/ how do they decide transparently, what not to let people get to via
"basics"?
is it something that costs facebook too much, or is it just something that
doesn't earn facebook more money (e.g. through advertising revenue)?
(the regulatory position is obviously more general than this, but I'd just
ask this to start with, as I think the idea of not reaching all internet
sites that have a public IP is a Very Bad Precedent that better have a Very
Good Governance answer).

2/  if facebook are so nice, howcome I can't friend someone on another
social network directly from my facebook account? frankly, a facebook page
is a web page. I can link to anyone's web page from my home page, and they
can link to mine. Apps can follow those links. and if the pages have any
scripts/active/upload capability, can modify/add info there - so what are
the motives for facebook preventing this (and they do)? I can think of
some, but I'd like to know their specific business case arguments that an
open web (and open social media) is not as good or better than a walled
garden (see 1/ :-)

IP connectivity, and HTTP/URL connectivity are both network economies, and
various scaling laws apply (whether you buy Metcalfe's law or the
variants). Walled gardens are semi-monopolies, whatever level they operate
at. They may not necessarily be evil, but they better operate transparently
so the anti-trust people can check they are not just abusing their
privileged market position, or they are not welcome in democratic
capitalist societies...(or some other societies either:)

cheers
jon

On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Richard Dent <rd459@cam.ac.uk> wrote:

> Zuckerberg responds to the move with editorial:
>
> <http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/free-basics-protects-net-neutrality/>
> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/free-basics-protects-net-neutrality/
>
>
> On 23/12/2015 17:51, El Khatib, Yehia (elkhatib) wrote:
>
> Tension between Indian telecom regulators and Facebook over its Free
> Basics program
> http://tcrn.ch/1On2V1P
>
>
> /Yehia
>
>
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> Department of Sociology
> University of Cambridge
> www.openaccessphd.com
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