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posted by janrinok on Thursday November 27 2014, @05:50PM   Printer-friendly
from the have-the-cake-and-eat-it dept.

Brian Fung writes in the Washington Post that Wikipedia has been a little hesitant to weigh in on net neutrality, the idea that all Web traffic should be treated equally by Internet service providers such as Comcast or Time Warner Cable. That's because the folks behind Wikipedia actually see a non-neutral Internet as one way to spread information cheaply to users in developing countries. With Wikipedia Zero, users in places like Pakistan and Malaysia can browse the site without it counting it counting against the data caps on their cellphones or tablets. This preferential treatment for Wikipedia's site helps those who can't afford to pay for pricey data — but it sets the precedent for deals that cut against the net neutrality principle. "We believe in net neutrality in America," says Gayle Karen Young adding that Wikipedia Zero requires a different perspective elsewhere. "Partnering with telecom companies in the near term, it blurs the net neutrality line in those areas. It fulfils our overall mission, though, which is providing free knowledge."

Facebook and Google also operate programs internationally that are exempted from users' data caps — a tactic known somewhat cryptically as "zero rating". Facebook in particular has made “Facebook Zero” not just a sales pitch in developing markets but also part of an Internet.org initiative to expand access “to the two thirds of the world’s population that doesn’t have it.” But a surprising decision in Chile shows what happens when policies of neutrality are applied without nuance. Chile recently put an end to the practice, widespread in developing countries, of big companies “zero-rating” access to their services. "That might seem perverse," says Glyn Moody, "since it means that Chilean mobile users must now pay to access those services, but it is nonetheless exactly what governments that have mandated net neutrality need to do."

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @11:34PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @11:34PM (#120717)

    Coddled pissants everywhere need to start seeing the line between free expression and outright bigotry.

    Those two concepts are not in any way contradictory. That you think they are contradictory is just more whining.

    I see black guys being asked by white guys if they're going to steal, I see black guys calling white guys that they asked for a cigarette "racist crackers" because they don't give them one. I see white and black guys calling latino guys "dirty" for no apparent reason. I see latino guys verbally harassing both white and black guys too.

    That's racism and xenophobia.

    Yeah, when poor people say shitty things to other poor people THAT is the kind of racism that really damages society.

    There are few things I hate more.

    Too bad your hate is so misplaced. It certainly is easy to be revolted by the simplistic and obvious, it doesn't require any critical thought at all and lets you feel like you are a proper good person. What really matters is when a black person, so poor that they have to bum a cigarette, calls some random white guy a "cracker" -- that is the kind of bigotry that must be stamped out!

    Good thing you are here to tell us coddled pissants what kind of free expression counts as bigotry and what doesn't.

    Saying you don't want to finance third world projects when the projects at home have issues to work on is expressing a valid point.

    It is a convenient cop-out. If you think the guy intended to donate to wikipedia before he read this story, then you must also think that every AC post about systemd here is also completely on topic.