Facebook's Free Internet Service Turns Out To Be Silently Sucking User Credit

Free internet from Facebook is in question. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - Since 2013, Meta has offered free access to Facebook services in partnership with cellular operators in developing countries, such as the Philippines, Pakistan, including Indonesia.

However, according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), this access is not completely free, and users are unknowingly billed by the mobile operator they use.

The service, dubbed Free Basics, is offered through Meta Connectivity, formerly Facebook Connectivity, and is supposed to give users access to communication tools, health information, educational resources, and other low-bandwidth services at no cost.

The program, which has been running since 2013 and as of last October, has served more than 300 million users. In fact, Facebook reportedly learned that users were charged for using Free Basics for months.

The company calls this issue a technical issue and annoyance, because it occurs when paid services start to overlap with free services.

And because most of the users the program serves are on prepaid phone plans, many don't realize they've been charged for using cellular data until they run out of credit.

The WSJ noted that one user in Pakistan was billed heavily for using Facebook's free Internet for a total of 1.9 million US dollars, with about two dozen additional countries also affected.

Apparently, this stems from Facebook's software and user interface (UI), with video at the root of the problem. Videos shouldn't appear in Free Basics, but a glitch in Facebook's software prevented some videos from showing.

A notification that was supposed to notify users that they would be charged for watching the video also failed to appear. According to documents seen by the WSJ, Facebook found that about 83 percent of its unnecessary costs came from sudden video views. Since then, Facebook says it has fixed the problem for the most part.

“We let people know that viewing photos and videos will result in data charges when they sign up, and we do our best to remind people that viewing them can result in data charges,” said Meta Spokesperson Drew Pusateri. Verge, Wednesday, January 26.

"The issues identified in internal reports that affected some of those reminders have been largely addressed. We will continue to work with our partners to meet our obligations to these users and ensure accurate and transparent data charges."

As the WSJ reports, Facebook's growth has largely stopped in developed markets and has only picked up in low-connectivity countries.

Facebook is not only a social site in these countries but also as an Internet provider. The company is deploying its own Wi-Fi across the country and has also introduced Facebook Discover, a feature similar to Free Basics, which provides limited free data each day.