However, the service was short lived as it was shut down in Egypt too just after a week it was shut down in India. A statement from a Facebooks spokesperson stated that prior to the suspension of the service, a total of 3 billion people were availing the service which included 1 million people who did not use internet before the introduction of the service.
The spokesperson expressed the company’s disappointment at the suspension of the program and added that the company is working hard to resolve the whole situation.
No specific reasons behind the suspension of the service in Egypt have come to the forefront yet. In 2011, Social networking sites like Facebook played a major role in the accumulation pf protestors for the Arab Spring uprising. The said uprising led to the resignation of Egypt’s President at that time- Hosni Mubarak.
Mark Zuckerberg had recently come to Free Basics’ defense in an interview with the Times of India. He pointed out that every people should have an access to the required tools that would help them to make progress in life.
He stated that people can gain access to jobs, education and healthcare through internet and this can result in lessening of the burden of unemployment and poverty on Indian society. He further added that more than one billion people need to remain connected to internet for India to make significant amount of progress and a service like Free Basics would definitely provide the required help in doing so.
Stay tuned for more update on Facebook’s Free Basics.