Facebook’s try Citizens cry onus on TRAI

With the clock ticking away and a just a day to go for filing responses to TRAI’s paper on zero-rating platform, even as the Facebook on an advertising blitzkrieg justifying its initiative, and the stand thereof, students drawn from all streams, volunteers, hacktavists, academicians, lawyers and IT employees from Hyderabad, turned up in thousands with the ire vented against the ‘diabolical’ Free Basics by Facebook.

The public meeting held at Swecha (a wing of Free Software Movement of India) office in Gachibowli brought together an assemblage that was united in its open decry.

The venue reverberated with slogans ranging from ‘Go Back Free Basics’ and ‘We want Net Neutrality’. Joining them in equal force and perhaps as vociferous as the slogan-shouting people were men of eminent like Professor L Pratap Reddy, Head of Dept, Communications, JNTU; Prof K Nageshwar, editor of The Hans India and Professor KS Rajan, Head of Spatial Data Analytics, IIIT Hyderabad, Jonas Smedegaard, Debian Developer from Denmark and Y Kiran Chandra, General Secretary, FSMI. Each highlighted his take on the negative side of Free Basics.

The participants then took out a rally from the Swecha office towards the make-shift campaign centre. “As December 30 is the last day for TRAI to accept suggestions on its paper, we scheduled the mass protest on Tuesday.

We want TRAI to summarily reject Facebook’s Free Basics, as it camouflaged the real intent-rather than support Net Neutrality it is intended to do otherwise. Moreover, it will provide limited content to the users,” was the furious reaction of Siddhartha, executive secretary of Swecha.

The organisers did not leave any stone unturned to make sure that the message reached the TRAI boardroom loud and clear. To make for a purposeful demonstration, they hit upon a novel protest platform- a free-for-all punching bag with Free Basics pasted on it that was meant to be kicked by every Tom, Dick and Harry passing through the vicinity. The volatile crowd tore down cut-outs that blabbered about ‘Free Basics’ and erected Net Neutrality placards as a measure of their solidarity.

Prof Rajan lauded FSMI for taking the fight to the streets. He maintained that Internet was a great gateway that could open up the world of knowledge and education. Given this yeomen service that comes with a cost-effective affordability, it is essential that its control should be in the hands of a chosen few, who could act according to their whims and fancies that could prove detrimental to one and all. He said Free Basics would create barriers instead of creating Digital Equality, which was reason enough for its outright rejection.

Prof Nageshwar underlined the importance of a solidified fight for net neutrality and thwart bids leading to digital colonisation. “Internet is a great democratic interactive platform where the common man can voice his opinion on politics, economy, religion et al. This very platform is under threat from Free Basics, which tries to create a private net,” he said.

Debian Developer Jonas too appreciated the effort of the volunteers and students in creating awareness. He urged students to be wary of Facebook’s hidden agenda that contained a bagful of tricks.

“Apart from attempts to garner support for Free Basics through its misleading bombardments on Facebook, it has been issuing full page advertisements in all major national and regional dailies apart from on television. Free Basics is not about free internet but offering select content of those who are part of Free Basics.

This helps in creating a balkanised internet where content distribution is controlled only by a few organisations,” explained Prof Pratap Reddy. “Facebook is spending millions on ads to entice support for Free Basics. It is time we see through the devious game-plan of Facebook,” he said.

Kiran Chandra, General Secretary, FSMI, pointed out that Facebook has resorted to censorship of any content that is against Free Basics. The organisers highlighted instances where users received calls stating they supported Free Basics.

The participants campaigned for digital literacy to the rural population, with its FreedomBox project. “Freedombox is a community project to provide email and audio/video communications and can also provide affordable digital connectivity to the unconnected sections,” Kiran Chandra said.

Volunteers and Swecha hacktavisits appealed to TRAI to provide digital connectivity to 400 villages in the next four months with the help of FreedomBox and work towards bridging digital divide while protecting the Internet democracy and Net neutrality.

They were all united on one issue-Free Basics was a demon that had to be destroyed before it could gain ground in the country.