Internet.org & Net Neutrality: What Facebook has to say

Shahriar Rahman

Facebook's Internet.org initiative to provide free basic internet access came under fire in the last couple of months for alleged violation of 'Net Neutrality'. On the launching day of Internet.org's service in Bangladesh with telecom operator Robi, Markku Makelainen, Director of Global Operator Partnerships of Facebook sat for a very brief yet exclusive interview with BYTES. On his maiden trip to Bangladesh, Markku talked about Facebook & Internet.org's stance on Net Neutrality.

What's next in the pipeline?

Since we don't actually pre-announce any of our launches I can't reveal which country will be next. But anyone can check all the updates in our webpage. We are pacing up our initiative and Bangladesh is the 10th country that we are launching our initiative. But I will tell you this: we are actively working to launch this initiative in new countries and new operators in existing countries.

Net Neutrality is a big issue and internet dot org is accused of violating net neutrality. What would be your comment on that?

Firstly let me just say that net neutrality is a broad concept. And as of the allegation, its completely false. We are very much pro net neutrality. Net neutrality is all about access and having non-discriminating access. We support that fully. We have another issue, which is even a bigger issue in my opinion which is internet connectivity for the rest of the population; we call it 'Universal Connectivity'. These two concepts can and must co-exist. Meaning more people goes online but there cannot be discrimination between different services. So how do we get more people online? The key barrier that we need to address is the affordability of the data. Most people in the world cannot afford to subscribe at current data prices. And this is where we come in.