Inside Facebook’s Ambitious Plan to Connect the Whole World

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, views the internet as an essential service. He “believes peer-to-peer communications will be responsible for redistributing global power, making it possible for any individual to access and share information,” writes Jessi Hempel for Wired. “People could tap into government services, determine crop prices, get health care. A kid in India … could potentially go online and learn all of math.” Zuckerberg launched Internet.org in 2013. Facebook organizes deals with governments and businesses of all sizes and invests in R&D to develop new methods and hardware for delivering the internet: satellites, lasers, drones guided with solar power and artificial intelligence–enhanced software. The company also organizes business deals to provide Basic Services. India recently rejected the program, suggesting it gave one company too much control. Almost 5 billion of the world’s people are not connected, though most have access. A challenge is motivating new users to envision the potential of the internet and global connections. – YaleGlobal