Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-06-05/In the media

{{Signpost inline image|image=File:Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Gala Event, Dhaka, 26 February 2015-14.jpg|caption=Jimmy Wales speaking last year at the Bengali Wikipedia's 10th anniversary gala event in Dhaka, Bangladesh}}

The Economic Times, part of the Indian Times Group, features an [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/net-neutrality-is-complicated-wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales/articleshow/52507476.cms interview] with Jimmy Wales (also [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-now/tech/net-neutrality-is-complicated-wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales/videoshow/52507924.cms available in video format]) on the topic of net neutrality and zero-rated Internet offerings (May 30).

Net neutrality has been a highly controversial issue in India for the past two years. In 2015, a pro-net neutrality Save the Internet campaign arose that vehemently criticised Indian telecom companies along with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's Internet.org initiative.

{{signpost filler image|image=File:All India Bakchod.jpg|caption=Indian comedy collective All India Bakchod played a major part in India's popular campaign for net neutrality, releasing a series of influential YouTube videos ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfY1NKrzqi0 1], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0w_YhZUYeA 2], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAQWsTFF0BM 3]) that urged Indian citizens to oppose Free Basics and other zero-rated services.}}Internet.org, more recently re-branded Free Basics, is designed to provide mobile phone users in developing countries with zero-rated access to Facebook and a small number of other websites, including Wikipedia, while accessing anything else on the Internet would mean that the user incurs data charges.

The campaign against Free Basics was spearheaded by lawyers, IT experts, and cultural figures like the All India Bakchod comedy collective, which made three influential YouTube videos urging people to write to the Indian Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) in support of net neutrality, and to express their opposition to zero-rating schemes like Free Basics on the grounds that they mainly serve to cement existing monopolies, to the detriment of smaller and local competitors.

In February 2016, TRAI upheld the net neutrality principle and banned Free Basics and similar zero-rated services in India, a decision [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/08/india-facebook-free-basics-net-neutrality-row widely] [http://qz.com/612129/the-lawyers-techies-and-comedians-who-fought-facebook-to-keep-indias-internet-free-and-open/ attributed] to the popular campaign.

The Economic Times asked Wales for his opinion about these developments (time code 6:14 in the [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-now/tech/net-neutrality-is-complicated-wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales/videoshow/52507924.cms video]), given that the Wikimedia Foundation has its own zero-rated offering, Wikipedia Zero. Wales defended Wikipedia Zero:

{{signpost inline quote|Our Wikipedia Zero offering follows a very strict set of principles such as no money is ever exchanged and so on. Net neutrality is such a very, very complicated topic. It's something that I am very passionate about; I think net neutrality is incredibly important. And at the same time I think that getting access to knowledge for the poorest people in the world is also very important.

Sometimes those two things can be to some degree in tension and we have to be really careful about it. I think the most fundamental thing is that it's really important that we maintain a very open and free Internet and a free flow of information. So the detailed policy options ... well, it gets very subtle ... but net neutrality is very important.}}

Wales has in the past commented favourably on Facebook's Internet.org project, [https://www.quora.com/What-does-Jimmy-Wales-think-about-Mark-Zuckerbergs-Internet-org-project-especially-in-light-of-Wikipedia-Zero-Is-there-a-chance-for-it-to-become-a-collaborative-project-between-Facebook-and-the-Wikimedia-Foundation saying] in 2014 that the Wikimedia Foundation's Wikipedia Zero people were in contact with the Internet.org team and that "In my personal capacity, I am a big fan of what they are trying to do and support it fully".

In the Economic Times interview, however, Wales remained non-committal about the recent developments in India outlawing zero-rated services, saying he lacked the knowledge to give an opinion on whether the Indian government had done the right thing in clamping down on Free Basics:

{{signpost inline quote|I am not an expert on the specific legislation, the specific details of the Indian case. What I do say is I encourage people on all sides to come together and really think about all of the different competing values and how to best balance them. Was this the best balancing act? I'm not really in a position to say.}}

Wales also commented on a number of other issues in the [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-now/tech/net-neutrality-is-complicated-wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales/videoshow/52507924.cms video interview], such as the importance of getting enough good sleep, the spread of smartphones in India, the development of Wikipedias in India's regional languages and Wikimedia Foundation fundraising.

On the latter topic, Wales said that in order to fund the Wikimedia Foundation's recently started endowment, he would be approaching tech billionaires this year and ask them to "chip in" (time code 5:30 in the video). He affirmed this intent in an [http://www.trend.at/branchen/digital/wikipedia-6387751 interview] (May 30) with Austrian business magazine Trend as well, saying his main fundraising job this year is to "raise 100 million dollars".