Free Basics: By trying to hoodwink TRAI through a rigged opinion poll, Facebook has shot itself in the foot

By Sreemoy Talukdar Did Facebook indulge in rigging the opinion of its millions of users while sending responses in support of Free Basics to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India? Questions are being raised after TRAI, in a stinging letter to the social media behemoth made public yesterday, has accused Facebook of trying to mislead users and TRAI by deliberately letting out half-truths and concealing vital facts of the regulator’s consultation paper on the validity of differential pricing by ISPs. Facebook has spent over Rs 300 crore so far in ad campaigns in India across billboards, newspapers, television and the Internet in favour of Free Basics, an emerging market initiative which makes available restricted Internet at ‘zero cost’ to users who are yet outside the data revolution perimeter. But net neutrality activists have pointed out that Facebook’s ‘Free Basics’ is neither free, nor does it provide the ‘basics’. Instead, they allege, it is a ‘walled garden’ whose sole purpose is to let the global social media giant corner the lucrative Indian market. What seems to have particularly attracted TRAI’s wrath is the recent poll run by Facebook on its platform where users were urged to click on a link to enable ‘a connected India’ where the likes of ‘Ganesh can get access to Internet’.  The automated template messages were then sent to TRAI as ‘proofs’ of popular support in favour of Free Basics’ adoption. TRAI says Facebook’s lobbying exercise has reduced a “meaningful consultative exercise designed to produce informed and transparent decisions into a crudely majoritarian and orchestrated opinion poll.” In other words, Facebook has basically been charged with capturing the booth and rigging the opinion of millions to buttress its campaign. TRAI says its consultation paper ‘Differential Prices for Data Services’ is aimed at encouraging lively debate on the crucial differential pricing issue and Facebook has subverted its very purpose by suppressing information, denying users the chance of adopting an informed opinion. “The template response that Facebook showed to its users, based on which responses were collected, do not adequately answer the questions raised by TRAI in its consultation paper. They cannot be accepted by the regulator even in spirit… Such an interpretation, if accepted, has dangerous ramifications for policy-making in India”, writes KV Sebastian, TRAI’s Joint Adviser, to Ankhi Das, Facebook’s Public Policy Director for India. TRAI had sought reactions on four questions raised in the consultation paper. It says Facebook has been silent on whether it had conveyed the full text of the message to users who had supported Free Basics. [caption id=“attachment_296079” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Facebook has spend Rs 300 crore on Free Basics marketing, Image: Reuters[/caption] “In light of the tangential natures of the responses by the users to the questions asked, the communication of the text was vital to demonstrating and ensuring that those who are responding to TRAI are making informed decisions,” the regulator says in the letter dated 18 January. That’s not all. It also questions Facebook’s “self-appointed spokesmanship on behalf of those who have sent responses to TRAI using the social media platform”, pointing out that Facebook has not been authorised to speak on the behalf of its users collectively. The regulator also locked horns with the social media behemoth over the number of emails it has received. While Facebook claimed over 16 million people sent emails to TRAI, the regulator acknowledges only 1.9 million responses, that too in support for ‘Free Basics,’ a specific product when the consultation paper sought a response on the broad issue of differential pricing. Facebook claimed its emails were blocked by TRAI, to which the regulator says the issue should have been brought to its notice on 17 December itself, when it reportedly happened, instead of waiting for 25 days till 13 January when TRAI was finally informed of it. Be that as it may, Facebook’s rather insipid argument tells us that the US giant is fast losing the perception battle over Free Basics campaign. TRAI didn’t shoot down its initiative — that call will only be taken later . But ushering in its ‘free internet service’ through the backdoor by attempting to hoodwink TRAI wasn’t a good idea. Facebook has ended up shooting it itself in the foot. Going ahead, it will find it extremely difficult to convince Indians that its Free Basics motive is inherently altruistic. No matter how many op-eds Mark Zuckerberg writes.