Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg eyes development of Bangladesh with ‘free Internet’

The free Internet browsing project by Facebook, Inc will help lift millions of people out of poverty, hopes the social networking site’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 12 May 2015, 07:01 PM
Updated : 12 May 2015, 07:01 PM

Mobile operator Robi launched free-of-cost internet service for its users under Facebook’s internet.org project on Sunday.
 
Subscribers to the operator can access 25 government and private websites without any charge, including one of the world’s first internet newspapers, bdnews24.com.
 
Zuckerberg posted a Facebook status on the service around 2:45am on Tuesday.
 
“We just launched Internet.org in Bangladesh on the Robi network! It's another step towards connecting the world,” Zuckerberg wrote.
 
Referring to a research, he said one-tenth of Internet users come out of poverty with the help of the service that “brings access to jobs, education and health information, and valuable communication tools.”
 
He added, “We have the opportunity to lift up more than 10 million people in Bangladesh and hundreds of millions around the world.”
 
The Facebook chief also shared a photograph of Bangladeshi photojournalist Joyeeta Roy with the post that is hash-tagged with ‪#‎connectbangladesh and ‪#‎connecttheworld.