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posted by cmn32480 on Friday March 18 2016, @06:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the like-AOL-in-the-good-old-days dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bitstream on Friday March 18 2016, @12:37PM

    by bitstream (6144) on Friday March 18 2016, @12:37PM (#319958) Journal

    This is perhaps the general lesson:

    Trouble is that the idiots are so numerous that they outnumber those with common sense, so the World becomes tailored to the idiots.

    Expect to be able to see the Web only via Facebook, Disqus, MSN or Google, or else via a special app for each website you visit.

    So the future will be locked phones with buggy software that is overloaded with apps to view the walled garden(s) where your bank and friends camp out. What a perverted future.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 19 2016, @12:22AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 19 2016, @12:22AM (#320234)

    So the future will be locked phones with buggy software that is overloaded with apps to view the walled garden(s)...

    Hate to break it to you but, with Verizon, the future is now. Just thought you should know.

    • (Score: 2) by bitstream on Saturday March 19 2016, @12:30AM

      by bitstream (6144) on Saturday March 19 2016, @12:30AM (#320236) Journal

      Let's hope customers (cattle) jump ship soon.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 19 2016, @04:06AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 19 2016, @04:06AM (#320293)

        Right, that will work. [dailymail.co.uk]