Internet.org, scaling the Internet, or scaling Facebook?

In the reading What is Cognitive Capitalism?, Boutang explores how both network size and market size affect a business’ ability to achieve capital gain (Boutang, 65).

An interesting example of how both network and market size intersect in a capitalist structure is the how restricted Internet access around the world poses a scalability issue for Facebook. In 2015, Facebook reported that there are over 1 billion people in the world who use Facebook. Since 3 billion people in the world have access to Internet, this means that 1/3 people who can use Facebook are active users.

Mark Zuckerberg realizes that his ability to grow Facebook is naturally capped by market size rather than an inability to propagate the existing network. Zuckerberg’s acknowledgement of this ecological hindrance has inspired the new initiative campaign called Internet.org. Internet.org’s mission is to bring Internet to areas of the world that do not have access today.

Internet.org does not provide free internet to all users. However, it does provide free Facebook access to users in affected areas. Zuckerberg agues that Facebook will provide these individuals with international news and medical information, which they would not otherwise have access to. While this may appear charitable on the surface, this initiative is exploitative as it fulfills Zuckerberg’s own capitalistic interest. If Internet access becomes more widespread, than the Facebook network has the ability to continue growing in an exponential fashion. Do you think that the internet.org imitative is morally flawed? 

This example also relates to Neff’s idea of “wealthy owners”. Zuckerbeg is committed to helping Facebook scale globally, so he can continue to establish his company. Zuckerberg has a personally vested interest in Facebook’s growth as it is correlated with his capital gain.