Facebook's free internet project, Internet.org, is facing growing opposition, after a consortium of digital rights groups wrote an open letter to the company's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, claiming that the initiative violates the principles of "net neutrality".
The letter, which is signed by 67 digital rights groups – including i Freedom Uganda, Ecuador's Usuarios Digitales and Indonesia's ICT Watch – states that Internet.org threatens freedom of expression, equality of opportunity, security, privacy and innovation.
"It is our belief that Facebook is improperly defining net neutrality in public statements and building a walled garden in which the world's poorest people will only be able to access a limited set of insecure websites and services," the letter states.
"Further, we are deeply concerned that Internet.org has been misleadingly marketed as providing access to the full Internet, when in fact it only provides access to a limited number of Internet-connected services that are approved by Facebook and local ISPs."
Internet.org is a global partnership launched in 2013 with the aim of making internet access available to the two-thirds of the world that are not yet connected. As well as Facebook, founding members include Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung.
The first product to come out of the Internet.org partnership last year was a mobile app that allows people in developing countries to access basic health, employment and local information services for free over their mobile network.
These include AccuWeather, BBC News, Facebook, Messenger, Google Search, Wikipedia, Facts for Life and UNICEF, as well as a number of locally-specific apps such as Go Zambia Jobs and India Today.
The app launched first in Zambia and has since rolled out in Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Colombia and parts of India. By providing free basic services via the app, Facebook says it hopes to bring more people online and help them discover valuable services they might not have otherwise.
However, a group of Indian technology and internet companies pulled out of the initiative in April, claiming it threatened the principle of net neutrality, which states that all websites should be equally accessible.
A report by Quartz in February also warned that, if large numbers of first-time adopters come online via Facebook's proprietary network, rather than via the open web, their whole understanding the internet will be distorted.
In their letter, the digital rights groups said they support the goal of bringing affordable Internet access to those who currently lack it, and claim that many of them have been working for years to provide non-discriminatory access to the full open Internet.
Their objection to Internet.org'sroach is its use of 'zero rating' – the practice of offering customers a specific set of services or applications that are free to use without a data plan, or that do not count against existing data caps.
"This practice is inherently discriminatory – which is why it has been banned or restricted in countries such as Canada, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Chile," the letter states.
"These agreements endanger freedom of expression and equality of opportunity by letting service providers decide which Internet services will be privileged over others, thus interfering with the free flow of information and people's rights vis-a-vis networks."
Facebook has responded to the letter, claiming that it shares a common vision with its critics, to help more people gain access to the broadest possible range of experiences and services on the internet.
"We are convinced that as more and more people gain access to the internet, they will see the benefits and want to use even more services," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.
"We believe this so strongly that we have worked with operators to offer basic services to people at no charge, convinced that new users will quickly want to move beyond basic services and pay for more diverse, valuable services.“
Earlier this month, Facebook announced that Internet.org would become a "platform", allowing developers to develop their own services for Internet.org. The company hopes that this will encourage users to explore of the entire internet.
"Arguments about net neutrality shouldn’t be used to prevent the most disadvantaged people in society from gaining access or to deprive people of opportunity," said Mr Zuckerberg in a recent blog post.
"Eliminating programs that bring more people online won’t increase social inclusion or close the digital divide. It will only deprive all of us of the ideas and contributions of the two thirds of the world who are not connected."
By Sophie Curtis / Telegraph.co.uk
