The following video contains a Facebook newsfeed. While information contained in it is based on real posts and real events, the feed and characters depicted within it have been created for illustrative purposes. Section 1: INTRO On the surface Facebook seems pretty straight forward. You use it to spy on exes and make people jealous about that vacation you took that was actually a disaster. But in becoming such a central part of day-to-day communications Facebook has transformed into its own geopolitical force. One in five minutes spent online are spent on Facebook. It’s a cyber kingdom with a population of over 2 billion. That power has made the leaders of many countries feel threatened. So governments have started to push back, attempting to regain some control over how their citizens communicate. Our story begins here — where the fight between companies and countries has begun fragmenting the internet itself. TITLE: How Facebook is Changing Your Internet To understand Facebook’s role in how the internet is breaking apart, you first have to leave the U.S. Zuck: “Its great to be here in Barcelona with you” Zuck: “Its great to be here in Berlin” Zuck: “Its great to be here in India” Zuck: “I Wanted to come to Legos first” Want to win an election in Ecuador? Are you trying to build a business in Brazil? Network in the Netherlands? Or are you trying to have your single go no. 1 in Senegal? It doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing — Facebook has become a necessity for real world success. Section 2: Expansion Model In part, that’s because the company has gone through extreme efforts to reach far flung corners of the globe. They’re putting satellites into space and developing internet-beaming solar powered drones. Here’s one taking off now. 1. Zuck: “Connectivity can’t be a privilege for just the rich and powerful. (It needs to be something that everyone shares, an opportunity for everyone.”) The company is subsidizing connectivity in the developing world with the mission to make Facebook accessible to all. Here on the outskirts of Nairobi, Facebook made a deal with a telecom provider and now customers of that company can use Facebook free of charge. For those users, Facebook might be their entire experience of the internet. “If you grew up and never had a computer and you’ve never used the internet and someone asked you if you wanted a data plan, you response would probably also be “what’s a data plan and why would I want one?” They call it “Free Basics” a kind of mini version of the internet that gives users free access to Facebook and a few other sites. They’re rolling it out in developing countries all around the world. So why does it matter if they gives away free Facebook access? KENYA - EX: 1 of Unintended Consequence Let’s say you live in Nairobi and your name is Phyl. You find some cheap handbags made of the finest chinese pleather and decide to sell them online. With Facebook offering free internet and just about everyone you know using the site, you decide there’s no need to pay for a shop, so you snap a photo of a blue bag, post it on your facebook page and soon customers from across East Africa are liking your photo. Some people even place orders, even a few who don’t have a data plan because they’re using Facebook’s free version of the internet. They’re happy because they found a bag and didn’t pay any sales tax or data fees. Your happy because you avoided renting a shop and got cash. So life is good. But then you realize, your entire economic existence is resting in the hands of a coder in a hoody who loves avocado toast sitting in Silicon Valley. The more you think about it, the more uncertainty there is. What would happen if Facebook decided to start taking a cut of your business? Or what would happen if the Kenyan government added fees to Facebook, would they pass it on to you? And what if you decided to cut them out and go straight to the customer yourself? How could you possibly have a chance against Facebook? Questions like these, have led some critics to compare Facebook’s dominance in places like Kenya to a form of digital colonialism. For Kenyans, these issues are still theoretical, but for others the issues are much more real. JAKARTA - Ex: of Unintended Consequence #2 Let’s say you live in Indonesia and you’re a devout Muslim man. You’re not convinced about this whole internet thing and you don’t want to spend a good chunk of your monthly income to get a connection. But your daughter keeps telling you, the internet thing really is a thing. So she sets you up with Facebook’s free version of the internet. Online you discover cat videos are surprisingly fun to watch. Then you see a video of your mayor. In it, he appears to say the Quran is lying. You can’t believe it. The video has millions of hits. NAT POP MAYOR AHOK: “Thus ladies and gentlemen, if you feel that you can’t vote for me because you’re afraid you will go to hell, you are being lied to, but that’s alright because this is your personal calling.” In response, you and hundreds of thousands of other people come out to protest calling for the mayor to be removed from office. Six-months-later he’s voted out of office. But the problem is — the video that got you so angry was edited to make the statement seem more provocative than it actually was. But you don’t know that. And you don’t even have the ability to seek out other information because Facebook’s free version of the internet only gives you access to a few sites. So you’re left only with — A Facebook reality. Section 3: Cause And Facebook’s reality is one that’s based on an algorithm. And that algorithm rewards engagement, which often means prioritizing inflammatory posts. Combine that with Facebook’s ambitious mission to bring internet to the developing world and you’ve got a problem. On one hand, Facebook’s efforts bring information to more of the world than ever before. On the other hand, you have the world as it looks today, where guys like your Uncle Joe bicker on behalf of candidates using rumors and propaganda. Trump Supporter: “Fuck political correctness, Build the wall!” This is a space where protests flare up around lies and measured voices are shouted down by radical ones. Duterte Nat Pop: “President Obama is a son of a whore” Trump nat pop: “We will have so much winning if I get elected” Wilders: There is lots of Moroccan scum in Holland Mr. Zuckerberg has said the company is working on squashing fake news, but the problem goes further into what gets promoted and why. But for Facebook, there isn’t a lot of incentive to cut down on the half truths and misconceptions. Its main goal is to hold its audience captive and grow its community ever larger. Written Quote on Screen: “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.” At stake is the future of the internet itself. Facebook and only a handful of other major internet companies control our online lives, and each is aggressively trying to expand. Does the Kenyan government care if Facebook has allowed Phyl to circumnavigate their tax system? Does the Indonesian government care that 200,000 people are in their streets protesting? The answer is yes. Section 4: Effect The end result pits countries against companies. And not all governments are willing to cede power to Facebook. So they create new laws to govern their country’s digital space that cater to their interests. This goes against the way the internet was original supposed to work, as a way for people to share information without borders or rules. Now, Instead of one internet — there are many. Some are controlled by countries, others by companies. And everyone wants more control. Section 5: China Comparison There’s no better place to see the fragmentation of the internet than in China. Nat Pop Zuck: Xin Nian Kuai Le China’s internet is cut off from the rest of the world by filters that keep websites like Facebook from working. Tank Man Clip It’s sort of an anti-internet. Instead of facilitating free communication, it often works as a means to control that communication. Instead of connecting China to the world, it cuts it off. According to China’s internet, this event never even happened. But if you compare China’s internet to Facebook, some uncomfortable parallels emerge. While facebook lets you post plenty of articles and links from the greater internet, it also operates by its own rules. Just like China’s internet, a central authority tracks what you do and decides what you see. Most of the time your feed is hiding a baby photo from that girl Jane who may have been in your 4th grade class, but you can’t quite remember. But sometimes it’s hiding more. For example, these images were all banned from Facebook because they didn’t meet its community standards and now they’re in this video. We think it’s important to show them, but because we did, Facebook could now block our video. [Cut to black] OUTRO The question is: Whose values are we following? Should we cater to the values of Facebook’s algorithm and policies in order to be heard? Even understanding Facebook’s values can be difficult. In many places they promote free speech, yet in others, they are willing to consider censoring. They push for encryption in some places, but turn around and in other places to fight privacy laws that would damage their ad business. That inconsistency is driving fragmentation. And while Facebook claims to be connecting people, they’re doing it their way, with their rules. And you don’t really have a say in it. That’s because Facebook isn’t a democracy, it’s a business. And their business interests are changing the future of your internet. ENDIT