On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 10:14 PM, parminder <[email protected]> wrote: > > This is a very important issue. When the current net neutrality and Free > Basics storm passes, and we have a better idea about what side is govt > tilting towards, some of us plan to write a letter asking TRAI to look into > this case of 'platform abuse' by Facebook... Remember, TRAI has competence > both in matters of infrastructure as well as content (it issues > recommendations on media as well). > > Comment and/ or support is welcome.. >
I would be careful about which parts of Facebook's campaign we call platform abuse. Showing the user a notification drawing their attention to an issue that a website believes in is not platform abuse. If that's the case, Wikipedia did platform abuse for SOPA, reddit does it for many things, Mozilla does it on their homepage, Google does it on their home page, etc. Making one-click emails possible from a throw-away email address is not platform abuse. It just shows that Facebook is technically capable to circumvent spam filters. Yes, they would have had an unfair advantage since they are a platform where people already have accounts. But, that's only a technical advantage. Pre-composing a template response is not platform abuse. Even #savetheinternet did that. Spending millions on ads is not platform abuse either. The abuse Facebook did is on TRAI's consultation process in what TRAI themselves describes correctly as "reducing this meaningful consultative exercise designed to produce informed decisions in a transparent manner into a crudely majoritarian and orchestrated opinion poll". So, it became a platform abuse only when Facebook did what is okay (showing notifications, sending emails on behalf of others) to do something that is not okay (not informing people of what the consultation process is, disrupting the process). The irony is not lost on me that if Facebook decides to show notifications to vote in favor of a political party, it would not be abusing anything, but rather just taking part in the "crudely majoritarian and orchestrated opinion poll" that we call democracy. And I don't think TRAI will have the moral authority (if not technical) over whether networks can convey a political message to its users. Lots of depth to go into these thoughts. Thanks for deciding to pursue it, Parminder. Akshay _______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
