14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook announced that they have opened the Internet.org platform to all the developers interested in teaming up with the tech company and being a part of their initiative to bring free Internet to people who cannot afford it.
This decision follows a series of controversies regarding India’s resolution to pull out of the project, after concluding that Internet.org did not comply with net neutrality guidelines.
By opening up to all developers who want to contribute to the movement, Facebook intends to disperse these claims by making the campaign more "transparent" and more "inclusive."
Furthermore, they announced that people will now have more freedom to choose the basic services that they want to have access to.
The Internet.org initiative came under fire after people started saying that it favored certain services and websites that Facebook had ties with.
Now that people will have the opportunity to choose the websites and the apps, Facebook will no longer have to deal with allegations of preferential treatment towards its own apps, like Facebook and Messenger.
The report also underlines the fact that the project does not receive any financial benefits from websites for the basic services they have made available for people.
The project has some rules that developers have to comply with
However, Facebook noted that developers have to keep in mind several guidelines before signing up for the collaboration.
One of them would be to take into consideration the limited bandwidth given that the websites will have to be made available for smartphones.
Also, developers have to bear in mind that the collaboration is free, as well as the services provided to these countries.
In the video accompanying the official announcement, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the reason why they took the decision to turn the project into a platform was because they wanted to prove that connecting everyone in the world and net neutrality can coexist, a principle evoked by the CEO in view of India’s retreat from the program.