ADVERTISEMENTREMOVE AD

Why Zuckerberg’s Townhall Was Just a PR Exercise for Internet.org

There were many unanswered questions at Mark Zuckerberg’s Townhall Q&A at IIT Delhi. 

Published
story-hero-img
i
Aa
Aa
Small
Aa
Medium
Aa
Large

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, was at IIT Delhi for his first ever Townhall Q&A in India.

The event generated a lot of buzz as earlier this year, Zuckerberg and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had done a successful Q&A Townhall at the company’s headquarters in the US.

Just a day before the big Zuckerberg Townhall, Jai Mani, the lead product manager of Xiaomi India, spoke with IIT students as well. He even tweeted that he was glad he spoke a day before Zuckerberg because the latter’s would be a tough act to follow.

Spoke at IIT Delhi today! I'm glad it was today because Zuckerberg is coming tomorrow and that would be a tough act to follow...

Posted by Jai Mani on Tuesday, October 27, 2015

While the IITs are known to encourage young leaders from the technology world to come and speak to its students, getting Mark Zuckerberg to do a Townhall was a grand achievement.

This was supposed to be a cracker of an event.

ADVERTISEMENTREMOVE AD

Hit and Miss Affair

But, Zuckerberg’s body language was very different to a year ago when he came to India to launch his pet project, Internet.org. He was cautious and chose his words after a lot of thought.

There were many unanswered questions at Mark Zuckerberg’s Townhall Q&A at IIT Delhi. 
Mark Zuckerberg at IIT Delhi. (Photo: The Quint)

Though there were thousands of questions sent by people for his Townhall, only 11 were addressed at the event. They had been carefully selected to keep him at ease.

Zuckerberg did try to address the debate on net neutrality, which saw Internet.org take a lot of flak in India this year. But the facts he stated were from Facebook’s own internal survey, which, of course, stands to benefit from a positive perception of the project.

ADVERTISEMENTREMOVE AD

The Walled Garden

The event itself seemed like a brand building exercise for Internet.org.

Most of the people talking about Internet.org are people who already have access to the internet. The ones who don’t, have nothing to say about it.

Mark Zuckerberg

While trying to provide Internet access to all is a noble cause for sure, walled gardens like Internet.org didn’t exist when urban India got access. So why provide a walled garden to those who don’t have access right now?

There were many unanswered questions at Mark Zuckerberg’s Townhall Q&A at IIT Delhi. 
Mark Zuckerberg. (Photo: iStockphoto)

If Facebook is working for the greater good, then it can invest in building infrastructure to give people access to all of the Internet instead of just a part of it. Internet.org could have been like any other CSR project undertaken by Facebook like making schools in Africa.

ADVERTISEMENTREMOVE AD

Trial Run Townhall

Zuckerberg wanted to test the waters, which explains the small audience size and the hint that next year’s Townhall will need a stadium.

The question asked at the start of the Townhall still remains unanswered: Why so much interest in India? Zuckerberg resorted to statistics and figures and appealed to the Indian sentiment when he said that to get everyone around the world on the Internet, India will play a major role.

But despite this explanation, the Townhall remained an image exercise for Zuckerberg and Facebook.

Zuckerberg did, however, show some real emotion when he spoke of his visit to the Taj Mahal.

There were many unanswered questions at Mark Zuckerberg’s Townhall Q&A at IIT Delhi. 
“It is even more stunning than I expected,” said Zuckerberg. (Photo: Facebook)  

And I do look forward to seeing how Facebook will resolve the Candy Crush request mess for now.

(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)

Speaking truth to power requires allies like you.
Become a Member
Read More
×
×