Egypt shuts down Facebook's Free Basics Internet service

Etisalat was Facebook's partner for Egypt, as part of the Internet.org project to expand access in developing nations.

2016-01-01 05:00

Egypt is now the second country in the world to block Facebook's Free Basics, a controversial service which is part of Facebook's Internet.org initiative.

According to a report by the Associated Press, the program aims to bring free access to limited Internet services in developing countries.

“We’re disappointed that Free Basics will no longer be available in Egypt. More than 1 million people who were previously unconnected had been using the Internet because of these efforts,” Facebook stated, before adding that it hoped to "resolve this situation soon."

Telecom carrier Etisalat Egypt partnered up with Facebook and began providing Free Basics in October. While Etisalat has not made any official statement, Arabian Business quoted an unnamed company official as saying the initial license was for two months and the service was suspended when it expired Wednesday.