Hacker News Reader

Comment by marpstar | Hacker News Reader

Facebook built the internet?

I was recently in a small town in Myanmar where they have public electricity 4 hours a day. I noticed that most of the plugs were used to charge mobile phones, a device that many had never even seen just a mere two years ago.

Now, consider that it's common across South-East Asia to have very basic data plans that allow you to navigate Facebook for free (or at heavily discounted rates). https://www.mmtimes.com/business/technology/20685-facebook-f...

For a huge lot of these subscribers Facebook is the Internet.

People in the developed world who after gone through innumerable Internet phases and fads, and who presumably have more experience and a better sense of its subcultures, still have a hard time to distinguish fake from legit news.

How do you think a small towner in Myanmar who went from zero to Facebook overnight would fare?

That is a depressing thought. From zero to FB. I think the fact that FB has shielded much of the developing world from the Internet at large, gets too little press. We accept FB here because they don't get to cut off the rest of your Internet. Imagine if you only had FB and not the rest of the Internet... horrible.

I think it's better to have Facebook-only than no internet at all. If those are the options, I'd pick Facebook too.

Are you speaking as an informed and responsible user? If so, then you disqualify. A more appropriate outlook to the situation would be to imagine Facebook as the only options that young children have. It's not just about how you use it, it's also about how it indirectly affects the people around you because of the pervasive lack of due diligence. Facebook as the only option might offer some boons, but is it worth it? I think most of us would agree that if we objectively weighed the pros and cons of the "real" Internet some solid arguments could be made that its more positive sides make up for its darker corners in spades. Could Facebook pass a similar test?

Really? What is the facebook-only internet providing on top of the sms and phone calls of feature phones that would make you pick that flood of targeted advertisements? Remember that you can't e.g. follow the shared links on your feed. And the free facebook I have used on my travels does not let you to load images.

To some extent yes. In developing countries (including Myanmar) they are pushing free “access” to the internet via the Facebook app. So for a lot of people in these countries Facebook is essentially the internet.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com