What Happened To Zuckerberg’s Vision Of Free Internet For The Developing World

More than 50 percent of the world's population still doesn't have Internet access and Facebook has set out to change that. In 2013, the company launched Internet.org, an initiative that would offer free, curated web services to users in developing countries. In the five years since, 600 million people have started to use the Internet, one-sixth of them thanks to Internet.org and Facebook’s connectivity efforts, research commissioned by the tech giant claims.

But apart from getting those 100 million people online, the initiative doesn’t seem to be doing well. In fact, Facebook has fallen silent about its Internet.org project. Intrigued by the sudden reticence, WIRED senior writer Jessi Hempel took out to examine the developments in Facebook’s connectivity campaign, describing them against changes in Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance at three Mobile World Congresses. The allegory is a very skilful one. As the author recounts, over the years, the Facebook CEO lost his self-confidence and started appearing a bit perturbed, eventually not showing up at all this year. Hempel takes us around the world, from South Africa to Myanmar, showing us how the initiative first branded as philanthropy, with time encountered difficulties due to Facebook’s inherent focus o user and revenue generation.

“I had a front-row seat for these events, as I spent most of 2015 reporting an article on Facebook’s connectivity efforts that took me to South Africa, London, Spain, New York, and Southern California to observe the company’s efforts to advance its version of universal connectivity. My story was published in January 2016, a month before India banned Facebook’s app altogether. Shortly after that, Facebook stopped talking about Internet.org. While bits of news about the company’s drone project or new connectivity efforts still emerge, Facebook hasn’t updated the press releases on the Internet.org website in a year. That led me to wonder, what exactly happened to Internet.org,” writes Hempel.