Internet.org was introduced in Pakistan’s market few months back. It was basically aimed at promoting free internet in underprivileged areas but due to availability of only limited sites with this package, it was blamed of breaching net neutrality. Facebook was only working with 60 services created by third party developers.These service provides free content of certain websites to internet.org users.
However, the net neutrality and anti-encryption made it very conflicting service to use. Facebook has re-branded this product and re-named it “Free basics”.The major change in the service is the support for encryption and HTTPS. In free basic two certificates will monitor the encryption. One at the end of internet.org servers and the user while the second for the interaction between servers and the developer services. All the encryption will be temporarily decrypted on what Facebook calls “secure servers” to ensure proper functionality. This will make the whole service less controversial while the net neutrality still needs more attention.
Currently this service is available to billions of people acrossAsia, Africa and Latin America. Free Basics has so far rolled out to 18 countries with more getting access over the next few weeks.