fb Rebrands internet.Org App As “Free basics”

facebook’s web.org application, meant to provide free internet to individuals in creating nations, is renaming its app “Free basics”—and permitting developers higher flexibility in developing apps for the platform.

In a fb publish revealed Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered the modifications, explaining why the corporate was once rebranding the initiative. “We’ve modified the name of the app offering these free common products and services to ‘Free basics,”‘ he wrote. “We wish to make it clear that the apps you can use via web.org are free, basic services that may offer you get admission to to essential resources like BabyCenter.”

BabyCenter is just one of more than 60 services and products created by way of developers for internet.org, offered in countries like India, Colombia, Ghana, and the Philippines. Launched in 2013, web.org in the beginning (and controversially) supplied get entry to simplest to facebook and content material from make a selection companions; previous this year, however, it used to be opened up to all developers, albeit with quite a lot of boundaries. in step with Zuckerberg’s submit from (September 27, 2015), handing builders better flexibility will “[give] folks the facility to choose what apps they want to use.”

though seemingly innocuous and well-intentioned, internet.org has been some degree of competition for fb: In India and Indonesia, users have expressed their frustration with the platform’s finite content material, and some folks have accused fb of offering “a walled backyard” reasonably than precise web get entry to. If a user tries to view content material that isn’t included in fb’s free package deal, they are requested to pay for a data plan—prompting users and advocacy teams to name web.org’s truncated services and products a violation of internet neutrality.

Zuckerberg has countered with the claim that limited web get entry to is better than none. “to provide more people get right of entry to to the internet, it comes in handy to offer some carrier for free,” he wrote in a facebook post earlier this year. “If any person can’t find the money for to pay for connectivity, it’s always better to have some access than none at all.” altering the name of web.org’s app to Free basics helps deal with this challenge, both via differentiating the app from the overarching organization and eliminating the word “internet”; the usage of the phrase “free, common services and products” insinuates that the app does no longer promise unfettered get right of entry to to the internet.

fb is at present gearing up to test drones that might eventually carry web get admission to to underserved areas at a charge of 10 GB per 2d.

[by means of VentureBeat]