Internet.org launched in Indonesia. What's in store for users?

On April 17, through a Facebook post, Mark Zuckerberg declared to the world that Facebook’s Internet.org app is now available in Indonesia, in collaboration with mobile phone carrier Indosat.

Internet.org is an app which offers a suite of useful services – including Facebook – to users without charging for data transfer.

In India, the app has caused some controversy. A number of members of India’s startup community, including investors and founders, came out against the initiative. Mahesh Murthy, a partner at India’s Seed Fund went so far as to call Internet.org an “exploitation of the poorest of the poor,” which was giving the people an “ugly, stunted and unbalanced selection of a few products and denying them the full power of the internet.”

In Indonesia, the launch of the app has not met noticeable resistance. Several tech companies, including Tokopedia and Kelase, announced in press statements that they were proud participants of Internet.org and in full support of its program.

What’s really in it?

Today I finally got the chance to actually test Internet.org for the frst time, using a Xiaomi Mi 3 phone and the Mentari super internet prepaid plan from Indosat.

After installing the app, it opens to something that resembles a browser, with a list of sites to chose from. At the time of writing, the list contains the following services:

Accuweather
Ask.com
BabyCenter & Mama
Bola.net
Facebook
Girl Effect
JobStreet
Kapanlagi
Kelase
Merdeka.com
OLX
Penuntun Hidup Sehat
Tokopedia
Wikipedia
Wattpad

This represents a mix of international and local sites, ranging from education, health, news, to shopping and entertainment.

Tokopedia, for instance, is one of Indonesia’s most prominent online marketplaces, while Girl Effect appears to be a global initiative managed by the Nike Foundation. In Indonesia’s version of Internet.org, Girl Effect offers localized content in Indonesian aimed at teenage girls, with topics such as “girl heroes” and “life advice”.

Not as wholesome at is seems

The New York Times has called, Internet.org, a walled garden, a form of a tested and approved internet, which can essentially a be seen as a gateway drug to lure users onto Facebook.

But a second glance is enough to reveal that even walled gardens aren’t entirely controllable .

One of the approved sites in Indonesia’s Internet.org suite is Wattpad, a self-publsihing platform for aspiring writers.

The hit list of crowdsourced Wattpad stories, easly accessible through Internet.org, speak for themselves. Among them are stories called “One Night Stand”, “Daddy’s Proposal”, and “Fake Wedding”.

It does not take a genius to deduce that by offering free access to this type of content, Internet.org is likely to find its own set of outspoken oppnents in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s government has strict laws against online pornography. In early 2014, it had blocked access to the entire Vimeo platform because of some videos which showed nudity.