When the public internet first became readily available in western countries, one of its first and most popular uses was online communication. Early messaging clients like AOL and MSN Messenger lead the way for MySpace and in turn to the our current platforms. The modern day social media giants like Facebook and Youtube have seen huge increases in their userbases, following increased connectivity in emerging markets. Some sites have even been investing in internet infrastructure and in plans to increase the availability of their platforms, to boost long term growth. These practises have not come without its problems however, especially as many of the companies more or less are monopolists/oligopolists in their respective respective fields. The aim of this essay is to investigate some of the effects of the expansion of social media platforms, Facebook in particular, into developing countries.
To me, one of the clearest indicators that the internet was changing, was when T-Series, an Indian music business, first started threatening Pewdiepie’s (a famous Youtube-personality) position as the number one most subscribed to channel on Youtube. Just a couple of months ago, nobody had heard of them, and suddenly they challenge Youtube’s #1 star. It spoke volumes of the sheer amount of people and the pace at which, people in developing countries have been gaining access to the net. Facebook in particular has been one of the leading actors in expanding international connectivity. Having already helped millions connect through the use of a variety of different programs, there is no questioning that the company has done a lot of good. For example, the Facebook marketplace is likely to have helped boost internet sales in countries like Thailand, where sales via Facebook account for more than 50% of all e-commerce, with an average of around 30% in southeast Asia (Adam Minter, “Emerging Markets Can’t Quit Facebook”, Bloomberg). Facebook has also created a cheap and easily accessible online platforms for businesses, with 34% of Vietnamese companies running their online presence solely from Facebook (ibid). Better enabling contact with buyers and sellers has likely helped increase productivity in the countries involved, especially if the positive externalities of internet services in general are considered. However, the way in which Facebook has expanded internet availability has at points received staunch criticism, from both governments and individuals alike.
One of the keys to Facebook’s success in developing markets has been the implementation of a service called “Facebook zero”. Essentially, Facebook contacts local telecommunications businesses and works out a deal such that accessing Facebook will not eat in to their users’ data plan. The infrastructure companies then bank on that the addictive nature of Facebook will make their customers more interested in other internet services, which they will have to pay for, whilst Facebook gets more users. So far it has worked well for Facebook, one example being its first introduction in Nigeria (Maeve Shearlaw, “Facebook lures Africa with free internet – but what is the hidden cost?”, The Guardian). Things however have not gone as smoothly in other countries. Some governments argue that zero cost phone plans are not in line with net neutrality as they give unfair advantages to the platforms that can be accessed freely. In essence, this practise could potentially be in violation with competition laws in the countries in question, as they risk creating monopolies and oligopolies. Chile has already outlawed Facebook zero and similar services on this basis, and as it turns out, this isn’t the only problem.
As Facebook is one of the online platforms with the largest user base in the world, they have some difficulties with monitoring all the activities on their service. This has lead to Facebook being used to spread misinformation. For example, it is hypothesized that Russian Facebook bots had an impact on the US election. One of the worst, if not the worst instance where Facebook has been used to spread lies and incite action however, is related to the recent Myanmarian genocide of Muslims (Paul Mozur, “A Genocide Incited on Facebook, With Posts From Myanmar’s Military”, New York Times). Accounts pretending to represent myanmarian citizens run by Myanmarian military personnel, were used to spread false stories of rape abuse. Since last year, 700 000 Rohingyans (a muslim minority Myanmarian) have fled across the border to Bangladesh, and 25 000 are estimated to have been killed (Hannah Ellis-Petersen, Myanmar’s Military accused of genocide in damning UN report, The Guardian). Some deaths caused directly by the hands of the Myanmarian government, others by their fellow citizens. Human rights organizations blame the myanmarian Facebook propaganda for this increase in public violence, and although Facebook did step in and remove the government’s official accounts, it is clear that is was not enough to hinder the catastrophe that followed. To be fair however, any media platform can be abused an it is hard to monitor and delete content without facing discussions of censorship and free speech infringement. These occurrences do however show that some governments and people may have a valid reason to fear Facebook.
To conclude- the increased use of social media has shown to boost productivity and make markets more fluid. There are problems associated with this, meaning the positives have to weighed against the negatives. As of right now, the economic results of the introduction definitely seem to be good, but considering that we are living in a post truth era, the end social results of the Facebook expansion might be country dependent.
References
Adam Minter, “Emerging Markets Can’t Quit Facebook”, Bloomberg, 2018
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-04-19/emerging-markets-can-t-quit-facebook (Fetched 05-12-18)
Paul Mozur, “A Genocide Incited on Facebook, With Posts From Myanmar’s Military”, New York Times, 2018
Hannah Ellis-Petersen, Myanmar’s Military accused of genocide in damning UN report, The Guardian, 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/27/myanmars-military-accused-of-genocide-by-damning-un-report
Maeve Shearlaw, “Facebook lures Africa with free internet – but what is the hidden cost?”, The Guardian, 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/01/facebook-free-basics-internet-africa-mark-zuckerberg
