Lately I see people who supported Net Neutrality, supporting Free Basics because they are misinformed. Let us see what is Free Basics in context of the physical world
Arjun is in a city with 10 to 20 malls and around 500 to 600 small retail shops, where he can buy all his stuff from groceries to apparels. He regularly fuels his car and drives down to whichever outlet he wishes to buy from - This is today's internet
One day Big Brother says "Arjun, If you buy from shop A, you will get free pickup-drop, thereby saving on the fuel costs and on top of it, you will also get discounts in our shops. You can go how many ever times you want and avail the services"
"Wow, that's a steal! This shop isn't near my place however I can travel for free and also get discounts" thinks Arjun and he signs up
He goes there every week and is quite happy with the free services & discounts. Within a year, he observes more and more people are signing up for this wonderful program
Two years have passed and Arjun realises that the discounts on products have stopped and he gets to buy only specific brands; if he wants a different brand, he would have to pick it up from outside and when he ventures out, it dawns on him that most of the shops which existed earlier are closed because customers had stopped visiting them
So in short, although the program initially seemed great, it killed competition and created a monopoly with no choices for Customers
This is what FreeBasics is in the Internet World
Free Basics is where Facebook and Telecom Operators will tie-up with large companies and allow their mobile apps and internet sites to be made available for free to the user with zero internet charges, which would mean users would stop visiting other sites; eventually running them to the ground
The only reason these companies are ready to invest billions of dollars is to increase market share and to obliterate competition - In its current form, Free Basics is the opposite of Net Neutrality
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