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Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

>"Their monopoly over internet infrastructure in some developing countries"

In which developing countries does Facebook have a "monopoly" over internet infrastructure?

This is the model for internet/Facebook access in several sub-saharan African countries and others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Basics#Participants They've partnered up with large telecom operators in these regions to offer zero-rated Facebook access.

The Guardian has a couple of decent writeups about it too:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/01/facebook-free-...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/27/facebook-...

Facebook has been actively targeting developing countries that lack Internet infrastructure. They offer a walled garden consisting of Facebook and a few other sites for free. They initially called it Internet.org, but it’s since been renamed Free Basics.

I guess the concern is that people will confuse Facebook for the Internet, and they’ll think they’re getting the Internet for free. It then becomes very difficult for a real ISP offering full Internet access to enter the market.

you got a link?

https://info.internet.org/en/story/free-basics-from-internet...

I don’t know if they have “monopolies”, as OP claimed, but these are the countries where they operate:

https://info.internet.org/en/story/where-weve-launched/

ok thanks yeah i get the vibe

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