E-Business
Internet.org Opens to all Developers after Net Neutrality Row
Internet.org, the Facebook-driven initiative designed to bring people in emerging markets online, is opening its gates to anyone who’s willing to play by the rules.
Facebook announced on Monday that it’s opening the Internet.org development platform to entrepreneurs and developers who want to build services that integrate with Internet.org. The change is an important step towards addressing claims from critics that Internet.org is actually stifling a free and open Internet.
Internet.org partners with mobile networks to offer access to free basic Web services via the Internet.org mobile app and the Internet.org website, as well as through other partner mobile Web browsers.
It is currently available in Africa, Latin America and Asia, and has connected millions of people who previously had little or no access to the Internet. Internet.org was announced in 2013 as part of a broader coalition with the likes of Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung, and aims to bring Web access to the two-thirds of people around the world who aren’t online.
So far, Internet.org has offered a few dozen Web services in each country, such as Wikipedia, Facebook Messenger, UNICEF’s Facts of Life health site and local news sites. Internet.org mobile partners and Web services adhere to guidelines established by Facebook to ensure users receive free access and aren’t hobbled by slow data speeds.
Internet.org has faced criticism because of Facebook’s decision to handpick the companies and services that can use Internet.org’s platform.
Some critics, including many in India where Internet.org operates, argue that Facebook is delivering the millions of people it has brought online to its preferred services — including its own social network and messaging offerings — and limits the ability for other providers to access users.
Those critics say Internet.org is in direct conflict to Net neutrality — the idea that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally– by providing special treatment to free services and harming competing providers that are operating on the Web, but can only be accessed outside of Internet.org.
“Internet.org doesn’t block or throttle any other services, or create fast lanes,” Zuckerberg wrote in an op-ed on India’s Hindustan Times last month defending his service against those charges. “We will never prevent people accessing other services, and we will not use fast lanes.”
Zuckerberg said that offering free services is useful when the goal is to get more people online. “If you can’t afford to pay for connectivity, it is always better to have some access and voice than none at all.”
Still, protests have mounted and likely prompted Facebook’s move on Monday to announce that its platform is now open to anyone who’s willing to adhere to its guidelines. Those guidelines are driven by three core principles.
Firstly, Facebook said all supported services must allow for the “exploration of the broader Internet wherever possible.”
In other words, the services must not limit a person’s ability to get online and see Web pages. Internet.org providers must also offer their services for free and require only minimal bandwidth. Facebook said that several high-bandwidth services, including VoIP offerings, like Skype, video sites and file-transfer platforms, won’t be allowed into the Internet.org platform.
Finally, sites and services built with Internet.org in mind must work on both feature phones and smartphones.
“We think these criteria will help us to connect more people faster, and add even greater value to people’s lives,” Facebook wrote in its blog post announcing the change.
Whether that will be enough to quell the Net neutrality unrest over Internet.org remains to be seen, but already the critics have chimed in. India-based Nikhil Pahwa, who founded online site Medianama, told Reuters in an interview on Monday that Internet.org is “effectively disadvantaging other companies and broader usage of the Web.”
Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) is in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and needs urgent reforms to revive it, according to Isaac Kekemeke, board chairman of the service.
Kekemeke, who spoke at a workshop organised for NIPOST staff in Abuja yesterday, added that it is now time to go the whole hog to reform and make NIPOST fulfill its destiny to compare and compete favourably with multinational postal agencies.
“The approach may not be palatable at all times but we need to take the tough but necessary decisions to exit the intensive care unit. We are either out of ICU in good health or head for the morgue. NIPOST either functions effectively now as a commercialised state operator or gets privatised, so that myself, the PMG, and a good number of you risk the loss of our jobs,” the chairman said.
No doubt, he added, “Change is not always easy as many loathe change because of the uncertainty it brings but it is in my place to urge you all to embrace the change we advocate.”
The Internet Society’s six-month Fellowship Peering program continues to help make internet access affordable, dependable, and resilient. The program, according to the global charitable organisation, is targeted for fifteen professionals in the peering and interconnection sector.
“It offers a unique opportunity to build the skills, knowledge, and networks necessary to improve local Internet infrastructure and policy,” according to the site’s description.
The fellowship participants will participate in a comprehensive curriculum that includes virtual training sessions, collaborative forums, and technical and advocacy-based instruction on routing, Internet Exchange Points, and policy.
The fellowship culminates in attendance at a global peering event, which provides direct experience and networking opportunities with important voices in the Internet community.
The fellowship enhances participants’ impact in their particular nations by developing engagement with seasoned professionals and boosting regional and global collaboration. The program invites fellows to return to their communities prepared to expand interconnectivity, improve policy conditions, and make a meaningful contribution to the development of the Internet ecosystem.
Applicants must have at least three years of Internet experience and be based in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, or Asia-Pacific.
Eligibility also required proper travel documentation and availability to attend important events such as African Peering and Interconnection Forum, Latin American and Caribbean Network Operators Forum, or Peering Asia, as well as a commitment of roughly four hours per week over six months.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called for the withdrawal of the amendment of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 because it seeks to regulate the activities of bloggers operating within the territorial boundaries of Nigeria.
The organisation in its letter urged Mr Godswill Akpabio, Senate President, and Mr Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of the House of Representatives, to “immediately withdraw the repressive bill.”
The titled A Bill for an Act to Amend the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, to Mandate the Establishment of Physical Offices within the Territorial Boundaries of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Social Media Platforms and for Related Matters among others intends to regulate bloggers, including by requiring all bloggers to register local offices and join recognised national association for bloggers.
Currently, the bill has passed its first and second reading in the Senate.
In the letter signed its deputy director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP asked Mr Akpabio and Mr Abbas “to ensure that any amendment to the Nigeria Data Protection Act promotes and protects the rights of bloggers and other journalists and does not undermine the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.”
It demanded an end to “the imposition of unnecessary restrictions on the rights of Nigerians online and Internet-based content.”
In the letter dated April 12, 2025, the group said, “This bill is a blatant attempt to bring back and fast-track the obnoxious and widely rejected social media bill by the back-door.”
“If passed, the bill would also be used to ban major social media platforms—including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok, and independent bloggers if they ‘continuously fail to establish/register and maintain physical offices in Nigeria for a period of 30 days.
“Lawmakers should not become arbiters of truth in the public and political domain. Regulating the activities of bloggers and forcing them to associate would have a significant chilling effect on freedom of expression and lead to censorship or restraint.
“Should the National Assembly and its leadership fail to withdraw the bill to regulate the activities of bloggers, and should any such bill be assented to by President Bola Tinubu, SERAP would consider appropriate legal action to challenge the legality of any such law and ensure it is never implemented in the public interest,” the organisation warned.
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