We all know Facebook as the number one social network. It was with his creation in February 2004 that the era of social networks as we know them really began. Facebook has established itself on the internet and is recognized as an essential platform for social networking. What was an idea, a few years ago, is now a global company. And like any successful industry, Facebook is constantly being criticized by critics. The latest controversy is about Facebook's free internet access services: Free Basics and internet.org.
In the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Facebook was held responsible for the use made by some users. Facebook would have served as a relay and catalyst for the ethnic crisis and cleansing in the country. In response to growing criticism of his company, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chairman of Facebook, has shut down free Internet access services in some countries, including the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Bolivia , Papua New Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Anguilla, El Salvador and Saint Lucia.
No comments were made on the discontinuation of these services in the aforementioned countries, nor on the part of Facebook, nor that of its partner telecommunications networks. A spokesman for Facebook even skirted all the questions about this drastic decision and simply said that the services in question had recently been launched or extended to Cameroon, Peru, Sudan, Colombia, Indonesia. and in Ivory Coast. He also said the company remains committed to helping get as many people online as possible.
Confirmations expected by the general public were provided by Digicel, a telecommunications operator partner of Facebook who, through a spokesperson, admitted that the above-mentioned states could no longer use Free Basics, and by extension, the Internet. org as the operation of the second is conditioned to that of the first. The program would have been interrupted "for commercial reasons", according to the spokesman who did not wish to extend in additional explanations.
A large number of international organizations have held Facebook responsible for the envenomement of the conflict in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Through its president, Marzuki Darusman, the UN's independent international fact-finding mission in Myanmar argues that "social networks have made a substantial contribution to the level of acrimony and dissension and conflict within the public. And that "in Myanmar, Facebook is the most dominant".
Asked by Patrick Leahy, a Vermont senator, about the steps to be taken to eliminate such hate speech within 24 hours, Mark Zuckerberg replied that the Facebook review team was being expanded with more experts in the Burmese language, since hate speech is very characteristic of the language. For some, however, the solution would be very simple. Facebook should just take the trouble to analyze the potential impact that its platforms could have on a population or even a nation before starting to settle there.
