What Happened to Facebook's Grand Plan to Wire the World?

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In 2013 Mark Zuckerberg debuted a bold, humanitarian vision of global internet. It didn’t go as planned—forcing Facebook to reckon with the limits of its own ambition.

Facebook launched Internet.org with the bold arrogance that has defined its approach to many of its partnerships. It blundered blindly into areas where it had no expertise, apologizing after the fact when it made mistakes. That arrogance left it deaf to the feedback of partners, potential users, and people who had spent careers learning the lessons Facebook has had to piece together on its own. By the middle of 2016, the company had rebranded its larger effort to “Internet.org by Facebook.” Instead of adding partners to the original six with which it launched in 2013, Facebook opted to forge its own path.  In many ways, the early mistakes Facebook made as it launched Internet.org mirror the company’s current challenges. Facebook tried to present itself as a neutral party and suggested its actions were driven by altruism. But Facebook is inherently not neutral; its aim is profit. 


What Happened to Facebook's Grand Plan to Wire the World?