Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / Archives for Facebook

Net neutrality: Facebook shuts Free Basics programme in India

by

Facebook

New Delhi: In a boost to net neutrality, Facebook has decided to shut down its controversial ‘Free Basics’ programme in India, following telecom regulator Trai’s move to bar operators from charging different rates for Internet access based on content.

Facebook had met with severe criticism for its programme, which aimed at providing basic Internet access to people in partnership with telecom operators.

Critics saw this as violation of the principle of net neutrality that states that entire Internet should be available to everyone on equal terms as Free Basics allowed access to selected websites.

“Free Basics is no longer available to people in India,” a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed response. The service was available in India with Reliance Communications. In December, RCom put the service on hold following a Telecom Regulator Authority of India’s directive to that effect.

Ruling in favour of net neutrality, Trai has barred all telecom operators from offering discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content, impying that operators will have to charge the same price for data used, irrespective of website or app accessed by the consumer.

This puts an end to Facebook’s Free Basics and Airtel’s zero rating plans in India. Yesterday, Facebook board member Marc Andreessen had set off another controversy by terming Trai’s decision as an ‘anti-colonialist’ idea and said the country would have been better off if it had remained under British rule.

Facebook founder and head Mark Zuckerberg distanced himself from the comments saying the remarks were “deeply upsetting” and did not represent the company’s thinking.

“India has been personally important to me and Facebook. Early on in my thinking about our mission, I traveled to India and was inspired by the humanity, spirit and values of the people,” he wrote in a post on the social networking site.

“It solidified my understanding that when all people have the power to share their experiences, the entire world will make progress,” he added. Andreessen deleted the tweet and apologised through a series of tweets yesterday.

“Last night on Twitter, I made an ill-informed and ill-advised comment about Indian politics and economics. To be clear, I am 100 per cent opposed to colonialism, and 100 per cent in favor of independence and freedom, in any country, including India,” he said later in a series of tweets.

Zuckerberg has come out in defence of the programme time and again, saying it did not block or throttle other services and is not in conflict with net neutrality. Launched in 2014, Facebook is running the Internet.org programme across over 17 countries providing basic Internet access to over one billion people.

Following allegations of violation of net neutrality, Facebook rebranded the programme as ‘Free Basics’. It had said the rebranding will help Facebook distinguish the free basic Internet offering from the large number of activities the US-based company is pursuing to help get new users online across the globe. Recently, it ran a big media campaign in support of the programme.

(Agencies)

TRAI rules in favour of Net Neutrality

by

Facebook

New Delhi: “No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content,” says TRAI.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday issued the ‘Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016’ that bars service providers from offerring or charging discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.

A service provider may reduce tariff for accessing or providing emergency services, the body ruled. TRAI may review these regulations after a period of two years.

TRAI will also levy a penalty of Rs. 50,000 a day for discriminatory tariffs charged by service providers.

This comes amid an ongoing debate over net neutrality in the country.

Earlier, the regulatory body had issued two consulation papers – one in December 2016 aboutdifferential data pricing and the one in early 2015 about over-the-top (OTT) services.

The consultation paper on differential data pricing had raised concern over zero-rating tariff models — a practice wherein service providers offer free data to users for select applications and websites — and the paper had become key to the debate on Net neutrality.

According to Internet activists, this model violates the principle of Net neutrality as it restricts access to free, open Internet. Facebook’s Free Basic initiative has come under severe criticism in India as it is based on a zero-rating model.

TRAI has also asked Reliance Communication, Facebook’s partner in India for Free Basics, to put the service on hold till the authority considers all the details and terms and conditions of the service.

(Agencies)

TRAI slams Facebook over ‘diversion’, company hits back

by

Facebook

New Delhi: A day before the open house discussion on differential pricing of data, a full-scale war of words has broken out between telecom regulator TRAI and social network Facebook over the Net neutrality debate.

Terming Facebook’s action as diversionary, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said the whole consultation exercise has been reduced to “a crudely majoritarian and orchestrated poll”.

“Neither the spirit nor the letter of a consultative process warrants such an interpretation which, if accepted, has dangerous ramifications for policy-making in India,” TRAI said in its letter to Facebook on January 18.

According to the regulator, the campaign by Facebook to defend its free Internet platform Free Basics in India is “wholly misplaced” as “the consultation paper is on differential pricing for data services and not on any particular product or service”.

Facebook India on January 20 responded to TRAI’s allegations, saying it’s being singled out. “We would note that we are not aware of a similar request (from TRAI) having been made to any other commentator who did not answer these specific questions,” it said in the reply.

“And we continue to believe that the original comments submitted were responsive to the general questions raised in the consultation paper, which clearly covers such topics as the Free Basics programme,” Facebook Public Policy Director for India, South and Central Asia Ankhi Das said.

TRAI also spoke of “the self-appointed spokesmanship”, in which “you have not been authorised by your users to speak on behalf of them collectively”. The regulator went on to say that despite giving an opportunity to people who shared their views through the Facebook platform, “text of TRAI’s communication was not in turn conveyed by you (Facebook) to those who had sent responses to TRAI using your platform”.

It all goes back to December 2014 when Airtel decided to charge separately for Internet-based calls, but withdrew the plan later after facing protest. The debate heated up after Airtel launched its free Internet platform Airtel Zero and Facebook followed suit with its Internet.org, which was later rechristened as Free Basics.

TRAI has started a public consultation on whether plans or schemes allowing differential pricing of the Internet based on its usage should be allowed or not. This is the first consultation paper from TRAI which has received maximum comments — around 24 lakh — till January 7, the deadline which was extended from the earlier December 30.

The social network behemoth claims that the number of comments in support of Free Basics to be more than 1.35 crore as against TRAI’s official figure of around 24 lakh. Facebook thinks that “someone with access to designated TRAI e-mail account appears to have blocked receipt of all e-mails from Facebook”.

In a separate letter addressed to TRAI, Facebook said it found that “on December 17 at 5.51.53 GMT, an individual with access to the TRAI e-mail account designated to accept comments took action that blocked Facebook from delivering any additional e-mail”. The regulator has cited a similar instance of user complaint on non-functioning of an e-mail address during the response period, which was “brought to its notice and the situation was immediately rectified”.

“It is surprising that it took over 25 days for you to inform TRAI about this,” TRAI said in the January 18 letter. According to TRAI Chairman R S Sharma, the regulator will firm up its views on differential pricing of data services by the end of this month.

(Agencies)

India top in censoring Facebook content

by

Facebook

New York: India once again tops the list of countries where governments make the maximum number of demands to remove content from Facebook, according to a report released by the company.

Notably, there has been a three-fold increase in such demands in the first six months of this year as compared to last year.

According to the data released by Facebook in its biannual government requests report, India made 15,155 demands, outnumbering 92 other countries in the list, Mashable reported.

In comparison, India had made 5,832 requests for content removal between June and December 2014.

The company said the posts were censored to prevent religious unrest in the country and had mostly been reported by government agencies.

“We restricted access in India to content reported primarily by law enforcement agencies and the India Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology because it was anti-religious and hate speech that could cause unrest and disharmony within India,” the report read.

Turkey came second at 4,496 requests followed by France with 295 requests.

India has topped the social network’s content removal list for the third year in running, since it began releasing the data in 2013.

(Agencies)

Modi to visit Facebook HQ in San Francisco, says Mark Zuckerberg

by

Mark Zuckerberg Narendra Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Facebook headquarters in California, US, later this month, the social networking site’s co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Sunday.

“I am excited to announce that Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India will be visiting Facebook HQ later this month for a Townhall Q&A. Prime Minister Modi and I will discuss how communities can work together to address social and economic challenges,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.

The prime minister is scheduled to be in the US September 23-28 during which he will attend meetings at the United Nations.

Modi thanked Zuckerberg on his facebook page for inviting him.

“I thank Mr. Mark Zuckerberg for the invite to visit the Facebook HQ. I look forward to the Townhall Q&A on 27th September at 10 pm IST,” he wrote.

“The interaction will cover a wide range of issues and will surely be a memorable one,” he added.

Stating that the event would be held on September 27, Zuckerberg invited Facebook users to ask questions by posting them in the comments section. “We’ll try to get to as many as possible.”

“I’ll post the live video here and it will also be on Prime Minister Modi’s page. I had the chance to visit Prime Minister Modi in India last year and it’s an honour to have the chance to host him here at Facebook,” he said.

“This programme will be incomplete without your participation! Share your questions on Facebook. I urge you all to share your questions on the ‘Narendra Modi Mobile App’. Your questions will make this a programme to be remembered,” Modi wrote.

(Agencies)

Connect the world or capture It? Critics raise alarm over Facebook's spurious Internet.org

by

Facebook service promises free web access for the developing world, while threatening the privacy and rights of hundreds of millions worldwide

Internet.org is already available to 800 million people in nine countries across Africa and Southeast Asia.

Internet.org is already available to 800 million people in nine countries across Africa and Southeast Asia.

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

Privacy rights and open internet advocates are sounding the alarm after Facebook on Monday announced changes to its “free” Internet for the developing world, dubbed Internet.org, which critics say threatens to make the social networking company the de facto Internet “gatekeeper” for hundreds of millions worldwide.

Branded as an initiative to “connect the two thirds of the world that doesn’t have internet access,” Internet.org will reportedly work with local telecom providers to provide free Internet access to a handful of pre-selected websites—including Facebook—as well as others related to “health, education, communication, finance, jobs and local information.” The application has already launched in a number of African and Southeast Asian countries, as well as Colombia in South America.

Internet.org has previously come under fire for violating the principle of net neutrality because it only offers access to certain websites. In India, a number of major publications including the Times of India media group have withdrawn from the site in protest.

In response to that critique, in a video address on Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced a new platform model, under which Facebook will offer “an open program for developers” to create “very simple and data efficient” sites to be among those offered to Internet.org users.

“Giving people more choice over the services they use is incredibly important,” Facebook said.

However, this new platform is even worse, argues Josh Levy, advocacy director for the digital rights group Access.

The change, Levy writes at Wired on Tuesday, “sets Facebook up to serve as a quasi-internet service provider—except that unlike a local or national telco, all web traffic will be routed through Facebook’s servers. In other words, for people using Internet.org to connect to the internet, Facebook will be the de facto gatekeeper of the world’s information.”

Considering the market that Internet.org hopes to reach, that amounts to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. On April 17, Zuckerburg said that more than 800 million people in nine countries, including Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, already have access to the site.

In addition, Levy warns that by excluding commonly used security protocols, such as SSL and TLS, in their criteria for potential developers, Internet.org threatens to “undermine the security” of their users.

Further, Facebook’s new platform “lacks transparency,” as it has failed to disclose important policy details regarding the storage of and government requests for user data.

As Vice journalist Jordan Pearson points out, because Internet.org user access will be routed through Facebook’s servers, the company will “get a huge amount of insight into users’ online activity.” What’s more, Internet.org users will be subject to Facebook’s data policy, which leaves open the possibility for their information to be shared with advertisers as well as the Facebook’s partner organizations.

“However they may want to present Internet.org, Facebook are not in the business of philanthropy, they’re in the business of making money,” Paul Bernal, professor of technology law at the UK-based University of East Anglia, told Pearson. “With Internet.org that means two things: capturing a market, then using that market. They want people to be hooked in, and then their data is, effectively, controlled by Facebook. In the current era, if you can control someone’s data, you have a huge amount of control over them.”

Indian companies back out of Facebook’s Internet.org to protect net neutrality

by

Internet.org

Washington: As the debate on net neutrality in India heats up, several Indian firms are pulling out of Internet.org, a charity headed by Facebook to help spread internet access to parts of the world where many people lack connectivity.

After NDTV, Newshunt, and the Times Group pulled out some or all of their services from Internet.org due to concerns over net neutrality, travel website Cleartrip has become the latest firm to exit the deal, citing same concerns, reported The Verge.

The concept of net neutrality had been a hotly debated topic in the United States last month as the FCC adopted more stringent rules. The issue is now being widely debated in India too.

Mobile network operator Airtel, along with local startups, had been planning on creating a platform where startups would pay for data usage, making their services free for users. However, this would be similar to the sponsored data initiatives seen in the U.S., which the FCC recently categorized as an unacceptable form of “paid prioritization.” Internet.org worked the same way as it provided users free access to a selection of 39 “essential” services, including Facebook.

The discussion surrounding the topic has raised several questions like, why Internet.org is being publicised as a charity rather than a business venture and whether it will impinge on net neutrality in an attempt to spread internet access.

(IANS)

Singer Nofel Izz to sue Facebook for $15 Million

by

220571-launch-of-canadian-singer-nofel-izz-album.jpg

Facebook has disabled the personal account of well-known musician & entrepreneur Nofel Izz, who founded JobsinDubai.com, and as a result, Nofel Izz no longer has administrative access to manage his official Facebook page where he stays connected with fans & friends of his music, nor to the Jobs in Dubai Facebook page. In fact Nofel Izz is unable to communicate with the nearly 700,000 fans of his music page, or assist with the management of the Jobs in Dubai page, which has over 2.2 million fans.

The worst part is Nofel Izz claims to have no idea why this is happening. In a personal statement, Izz writes “To the very best of my knowledge, I didn’t violate any of Facebook’s terms of service. I did not post anything scandalous or engage in some kind of nefarious activity. One morning, I attempted to log into my account as usual, and I was greeted with an error message saying ‘We’ve determined that you are ineligible to use Facebook’. That’s it. No further explanation has been provided to me. I’ve filed a claim and taken all the steps I can to re – enable my account, but I am, sadly, doubtful of getting any response to my many inquiries.”

NofelIzz is not the first person this has happened to, Facebook account disabled with no warning & no explanation. There are multiple accounts of this happening to other people. From the many reports to be found online, when something like this happens, Facebook offers no response or resolution for its seemingly arbitrary actions. This doesn’t seem like a good business practice, especially in cases where the Facebook user runs a business page, as well, alienating one’s advertisers is unwise for a company that relies heavily on advertising income, reportedly earning over $1 billion per year in advertising revenue. NofelIzz claims to have paid “a fortune in advertising” on Facebook.

This also isn’t the only way that Facebook is interfering with and upsetting its users. Facebook has been on the watch with EU for privacy violations. In 2014, the company faced a US class action lawsuit for mining & sharing data from its users’ private messages. In the EU, there are current allegations that Facebook is tracking web users’ activity, even if they don’t have a Facebook account. Use of tracking cookies in this manner is a violation of European privacy laws.

Facebook is a service which billions of people rely on to stay connected, in both their personal & their business lives. When a person is locked out of his account, he is unable to recover the thousands of memories & experiences shared with friends & family. When a business owner & page administrator gets locked out of his personal Facebook account, he also no longer has administrative access to his Facebook business pages. According to Nofel Izz, the effect can be devastating and can cost millions, as he plans to sue: “This has an immediate & potentially irreparable impact on my career and the career potential of hundreds of thousands of Jobs in Dubai Facebook page fans. I am disappointed, confused, hurt & dumbfounded by Facebook’s actions, which are, in my mind, unprovoked & cruel.”

India tops in asking for content restrictions: Facebook

by

facebook

New Delhi: Facebook blocked 5,832 pieces of content, including anti-religious matter and hate speeches, during July-December 2014 on orders of Indian government, the highest by any country on the social networking giant’s platform.

In its Global Government Requests Report for July to December 2014, the California-based firm said it has “restricted” 5,832 pieces of content.

“We restricted access in India to content reported primarily by law enforcement agencies and the India Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, including anti-religious content and hate speech that could cause unrest and disharmony,” the social networking platform said.

Facebook’s report includes information on government requests it received for content removal and account data and national security requests under the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and through National Security Letters.

India is followed by Turkey at 3,624 number of pieces of restricted content, then Germany at 60, Russia (55) and Pakistan (54), the report stated.

Besides, India made 5,473 requests for data, mostly concerning criminal cases, to Facebook in July-December 2014.

According to Facebook, government officials sometimes make requests for data about people who use Facebook as part of official investigations. The vast majority of these requests relate to criminal cases like robberies or kidnappings. In many of these cases, government requests seek basic subscriber information such as name and length of service. Other requests have asked for IP address logs or actual account content, it added.

“Each and every request we receive is checked for legal sufficiency. We require officials to provide a detailed description of the legal and factual basis for their request, and we push back when we find legal deficiencies or overly broad or vague demands for information.

“Even where we determine that local law would compel disclosure, we frequently share only basic subscriber information,” Facebook said.

The requests covered 7,281 user accounts and Facebook provided “some data” on 44.69 per cent of the requests.

(PTI)

Mangaluru: Blasphemous content about Islam, Prophet on Facebook – Complaint filed

by

facebook

Mangaluru: A complaint has been filed in Pandeshwar police station here on behalf of Popular Front of India, alleging that a person had posted objectional comments about Islam and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that are blasphemous in nature.

Mr. Safwan, city unit secretary of Popular Front of India, has said in his complaint that a person named Nityananda Naik from Kundapur had uploaded certain contents in Facebook which deride Islam, Muslims, Quran, and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The complainant has mentioned that the above contents have the potential of creating tensions between Hindus and Muslims on religious grounds. He has therefore, requested the police to take immediate action against the culprit. The police have begun investigation.

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives