[nicpottier]

Facebook 0, aka internet.org still exists and is growing in many developing countries.

Basically Facebook goes into local carriers and makes an agreement to the effect that users can reach 0.facebook.com for free on their network. They've now started adding other sites as well to that 'free tier'.

I imagine Facebook is paying something to the carriers for this, though at the very start it may just be seen as a competitive advantage by the carrier so perhaps not.

I actually find this practice super disturbing and find the naming of it as 'internet.org' even more so. The Internet is great because of the very opposite of this type system.

Say in an alternate reality Friendster did this a decade ago, would Facebook even exist if people had to pay to access it? Is that a state of the world we are comfortable with?

I very much understand the arguments towards the utility of the internet (even Facebook) to the poor and marginalized, but this isn't the right way to do it.