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There's a a growing trend to close off publishing platforms by demanding a login in order to view the content. Which is a move away from an open web. In December 2015 Facebook launched its own in-app browser, which is basically a web-view that loads links you tap on using the Facebook app. It may provide convenience for some but the primary goal is to keep users inside the application longer. This opens up more advertising exposure and associated revenue. This poses a challenge to the open web because this overrides the user's default mobile browser keeps the eyeballs in a closed ecosystem. The feature Instant Articles for publishers is done such that it loads articles available nearly instantly in the app compared to a mobile browser. This opens up for monetizing viewing and privacy invasions by Facebook on users. The in-app browser lack decent privacy controls.
Facebook is trying to accomplish a closed version of the internet. The Free Basics initiative with Facebook as the gatekeeper offers users free access to select websites. This initiative made privacy advocates in India, who play an instrumental role in the makeup of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to vote on 2016-02-08 that all data pricing must be equal, and that companies cannot offer cheaper rates than others for certain content. The decision favours net neutrality and essentially bans Facebook's initiative in that country. The Indian TRAI ruling states that pricing must be content agnostic. Facebook has become a monolithic platform that tries to mimic existing services by offering video uploads (YouTube), money transfers (PayPal) etc. Facebook is expanding like a invasive species similar to the Borg from Star Trek trying to absorb everything that touches their sphere of interest.
In the future, could resistance be futile because you will miss out essential information?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday March 18 2016, @07:11AM
Isn't this a bit on the sensationalist side?
Yes, FB would try to keep you inside their app for as long as possible (if you are stoopid enough to take their offer).
But they aren't denying you alternative choices for accessing the Web.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 18 2016, @07:20AM
...yet. Free basics obviously is the first beachhead. First you get preferred status and then move onto making other options illegal. Classic monopoly 101 stuff.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday March 18 2016, @07:37AM
If you reach between your legs, you'll find something that is the focus of a certain segment of the... ummm... entertainment industry.
As long as that something is attached to human beings, I don't think FB will get monopoly over Internet [knowyourmeme.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday March 18 2016, @07:50AM
The internet != the web.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday March 18 2016, @08:03AM
Ah, you still dial into a BBS for your daily porn needs?
Maybe it's time someone tell ya that since you last looked on the Web, there are a huge number of Web sites dedicated to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 18 2016, @09:08AM
I believe one can find nearly anything out there.
Even my favorite: Sthenolagnia
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday March 18 2016, @01:34PM
BBSs were not the internet. But the internet predated the web, and still is far more than the web.
And no, I don't have daily porn needs. But if I had, I'd probably first check if the binaries newsgroups still exist. There might also be some torrents available.
And from what I hear, they usually infect your computer with malware, too. Something not that easily possible with alternative sources using protocols without scripting support.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 18 2016, @09:11PM
Disk-less virtual machine from a LiveCD. What's wrong with you?
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Friday March 18 2016, @12:40PM
Yes, Facebook etc will see the light at least initially to have such things on their site in order to reach full market captivity.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Nuke on Friday March 18 2016, @10:01AM
Facebook Moves in to Make the Web a Facebook Monopoly
Isn't this a bit on the sensationalist side?
Whether Facebook monopolise it or not, I think a more important point is that they are doing it at all and that their rivals will do the same, until it is not possible to surf a large part of the web except though some advertising giant's portal.
I am already finding sites such as general discussion sites and even specific company advertising sites (like I was looking to buy some car accessories) which would not even let you browse the site unless you came in via an account with Google Plus, Disqus or Facebook. If I were a business with a website advertising my stuff, I'd want as few obstacles as possible to people seeing it, so what are these companies thinking of? Has their web developer taken them for a ride, with bungs from Facebook and Disqus ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 18 2016, @11:12AM
well, it is a good way of keeping out trolls. maybe they weighed the options, and decided that potential buyers motivated enough to create an account are enough to make them profitable (rather than expose themselves to all buyers + trolls).