Exploitation
Monopolistic wealth
Ellery Biddle, advocacy director of Global Voices critiques Free Basics which is a free internet service by Facebook. Biddle mentions that “Facebook is not introducing people to open internet where you can learn, create and build things,…It’s building this little web that turns the user into a mostly passive consumer of mostly western corporate content. That’s digital colonialism.” (refer to The Guardian 2017)
Major SNS companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, and internet search companies such as Google offer free applications due to increasing users and their access. Biddle also states “…to gather data about the habits and interests of users in countries where they aspire to have a strong presence, as more users come online”. This system helps monopolistic wealth of large IT companies and established companies. “Users have become “products” to be sold to advertising agencies. It is worth noting that every user of Facebook was deemed to be worth $4.84 in advertisements per year (at the time of the IPO).” (Knowledge Common Brasil)