Now, academics and scientists join campaign against 'Free Basics'

Angered by the slyness of social media giant Facebook to manipulate public opinion and gain support for Free Basics the revamped version of Internetorg some of Indias leading academics and scientists on Tuesday came out against the the controversial programmeOver 50 Indian Institutes of Technology IITs and Indian Institute of Science IISc faculty members have released a joint statement highlighting major flaws against Facebooks Free Basics asking the telecom regulator to reject its plan in the interest of protecting the citizens right to use their own public utility the internetThe statement says that Facebooks Free Basics is a lethal combination that will lead to total lack of freedom on how Indians can use their own public utility the InternetAllowing a private entity to define for Indian internet users what is basic to control what content costs how much and to have access to the personal content created and used by millions of Indians is a lethal combination which will lead to total lack of freedom on how Indians can use their own public utility the Internet they said in a joint statementThe statement said That the lsquoFree Basicsrsquo proposal is flawed is alarming but not surprising for it violates one of the core architectural principles of Internet design net neutrality Compromising net neutrality an important design principle of the Internet would invariably lead to deep consequences on peoplersquos freedom to access and use information We therefore urge that the TRAI should support net neutrality in its strongest form and thoroughly reject Facebookrsquos lsquofree basicsrsquo proposalFull statement rejecting Facebookrsquos misleading and flawed lsquoFree Basicsrsquo proposalAllowing a private entityto define for Indian Internet users what is lsquobasicrsquoto control what content costs how much andto have access to the personal content created and used by millions of Indiansis a lethal combination which will lead to total lack of freedom on how Indians can use their own public utility the Internet Facebookrsquos lsquofree basicsrsquo proposal is such a lethal combination having several deep flaws beneath the veil of altruism wrapped around it in TV and other media advertisements as detailed belowFlaw 1 Facebook defines what is lsquobasicrsquoThe first obvious flaw in the proposal is that Facebook assumes control of defining what a lsquobasicrsquo service is They have in fact set up an interface for services to lsquosubmitrsquo themselves to Facebook for approval to be a lsquobasicrsquo service This means what are the lsquobasicrsquo digital services Indians will access using their own air waves will be decided by a private corporation and that too one based on foreign soil The sheer absurdity of this is too obvious to point outTo draw an analogy suppose a chocolate company wishes to provide lsquofree basic foodrsquo for all Indians but retains control of what constitutes lsquobasicrsquo food this would clearly be absurd Further if the same company defines its own brand of lsquotoffeersquo as a lsquobasicrsquo food it would be doubly absurd and its motives highly questionable While the Internet is not as essential as food that the Internet is a public utility touching the lives of rich and poor alike cannot be denied What Facebook is proposing to do with this public utility is no different from the hypothetical chocolate company In fact it has defined itself to be the first lsquobasicrsquo service as evident from Reliancersquos ads on Free Facebook Now it will require quite a stretch of imagination to classify Facebook as lsquobasicrsquo This is why Facebookrsquos own ad script writers have prompted Mr Zuckerberg to instead make emotional appeals of education and healthcare for the poor Indian masses these appeals are misleading to say the leastFlaw 2 Facebook will have access to all your appsrsquo contentsThe second major flaw in the model is that Facebook would be able to decrypt the contents of the lsquobasicrsquo apps on its servers This flaw is not visible to the lay person as itrsquos a technical detail but it has deep and disturbing implications Since Facebook can access unencrypted contents of usersrsquo lsquobasicrsquo services either we get to consider health apps to be not basic or risk revealing health records of all Indians to Facebook Either we get to consider our banking apps to be not lsquobasicrsquo or risk exposing the financial information of all Indians to Facebook And so on This is mind boggling even under normal circumstances and even more so considering the recent internal and international snooping activities by the NSA in the USFlaw 3 Itrsquos not freeThe third flaw is that the term lsquofreersquo in lsquofree basicsrsquo is a marketing gimmick If you see an ad which says lsquobuy a bottle of hair oil get a comb freersquo you know that the cost of the comb is added somewhere If something comes for free its cost has to appear somewhere else Telecom operators will have to recover the cost of lsquofree basicrsquo apps from the nonfree services otherwise why not make everything free So effectively whatever Facebook does not consider lsquobasicrsquo will cost moreIf Facebook gets to decide what costs how much in effect Indians will be surrendering their digital freedom and freedom in the digital economy to Facebook So this is not an issue of elite Indians able to pay for the Internet versus poor Indians as Facebook is trying to portray It is an issue of whether all Indians want to surrender their digital freedom to FacebookThat the lsquoFree Basicsrsquo proposal is flawed as above is alarming but not surprising for it violates one of the core architectural principles of Internet design net neutrality Compromising net neutrality an important design principle of the Internet would invariably lead to deep consequences on peoplersquos freedom to access and use information We therefore urge that the TRAI should support net neutrality in its strongest form and thoroughly reject Facebookrsquos lsquofree basicsrsquo proposal