How four leading English dailies reported on Facebook rebranding Internet.org to Free Basics

Almost all the leading newspapers on September 26, 2015, carried the news of Facebook rechristening its service Internet.org to Free Basics. However, there were some interesting nuances to the reporting and some related disclosures.

What attracted my attention was a note at the end of the news item in The Indian Express’ Delhi print edition, saying: “(The writer is in San Francisco as a guest of Facebook)”. When I tried to look up the same item on the web, I found a more explanatory note that read: “The writer is in San Francisco on the invitation of Facebook which is paying for accommodation and travel.”

The same news reported in the Delhi print edition of The Hindu carried a similar clarification that said: “(The writer is in Menlo Park, California, at the invitation of Facebook).” The web version of the report had the same note.

Encouraged by such proactive disclosures, I went on to other newspapers. The Hindustan Times attributed the story to “HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi.” The HT news item also reproduced a post from Mark Zuckerberg giving the story of “a soybean farmer from rural Maharashtra” who is reported to have made “better parenting decisions by accessing expert advice through the BabyCenter app for free through Intenet.org”, and goes on to announce “significant improvements to Internet.org”.

The Times of India attributed the story to PTI.

The above reportage raises certain questions. Obviously, Facebook must have been selective in choosing whom to invite and whom not to invite. Did it decide against inviting HT and ToI, or did these two publications decide to not accept the invitations?

While it is obviously possible that the sources of the same news may well be different for different newspapers, it does raise doubts, however tenuous, about disclosures or lack of it.

Of course, on another note, a post doing the rounds of the Internet (I saw it on Facebook) brings out several “Issues with Facebook’s Free Basics”. One wonders if this could also be mentioned in the news item for making it more informative for readers. But then, that is another question.