Net Neutrality: Facebook’s ‘open’ Internet faces backlash from digital groups across the world

Facebook continues to face ire from around the world for its Internet.org, Zuckerberg’s initiative to bring free Internet to all. Now, 65 advocacy organizations in 31 countries have written an open letter to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg protesting agianst Internet.org for developing world. It has been signed by organisations from the US, India, Egypt, Sourth Africa, Slovenia, Nigeria and Pakistan, among others.  From India, it has been signed by Medianama and SavetheInternet groups, who have been at the forefront of the Net Neutrality battle here.

The letter clearly states that Internet.org ‘violates the principles of net neutrality, threatening freedom of expression, equality of opportunity, security, privacy, and innovation.’

Earlier this year, Zuckerberg introduced Internet.org that was slammed by many. Mark Zuckerberg soon issued statements explaining how Internet.org and Net Neutrality can co-exist. He also went ahead to make it an open platform in India, wherein all developers can partcicpate. However, the new guidelines almost seemed like old wine packaged in a new bottle.

The open letter articulates various concerns about the current structure and implementation of Internet.org. “Internet.org misleadingly labels zero-rated applications the “Internet,” when in fact users only receive access to a tiny portion of it. The project acts as a “walled garden” in which some services are favored over others — again, a violation of net neutrality,” the letter states.

The Facebook’s Internet.org guidelines could also lead to privacy issues. “There is a lack of transparency about how that data are used by Internet.org and its telco partners.Internet.org also provides only a handful of applications and services, making it easier for governments and malicious actors to surveil user traffic,” the letter tells Zuckerberg.

Moreover, the program prohibits the use of TLS (Transport Layer Security), Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or HTTPS encryption, which puts users at risk as their web traffic will be vulnerable to malicious attacks and government eavesdropping.

In India, the ongoing net neutrality debate and massive public outrage has made many take sides, and some big names like NDTV, Cleartrip and some properties of Times Group have decided to part ways with Internet.org as a result.

Under the social media section for instance, we were only able to access Facebook, while other social media services such as Twitter or Google+ were left out. Even within Facebook, you could only read status messages, like and comment. If you wanted to view photographs on Facebook, you were prompted to buy one of the many plans offered by Reliance Communications. The very concept of having a limited number of partners or web services, immediately puts competing services or apps at a disadvantage.