Monday, September 2, 2013

Mark Zuckerberg's big idea: The 'next 5 billion' people

Zuckerberg's plan to connect the world
Most of us take the Internet for granted. But think about what Internet access would mean to 5 billion people who don't currently have it.
That's the idea behind a new campaign, internet.org, led by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
"We want to make it so that anyone, anywhere -- a child growing up in rural India who never had a computer -- can go to a store, get a phone, get online, and get access to all of the same things that you and I appreciate about the Internet," Zuckerberg said in an exclusive broadcast interview with CNN's "New Day" anchor Chris Cuomo.
"They're going to use it to decide what kind of government they want, get access to healthcare for the first time ever, connect with family hundreds of miles away that they haven't seen in decades."
More than 4.5 billion of the 7 billion people on Earth don't have Internet access, according to the World Bank. The biggest gaps are in Eritrea (just 0.8% have access), Timor-Leste (0.9%) and Myanmar (1.1%). Even in the United States, 19% don't have Internet access.
About 1 billion people are already using Facebook.
Zuckerberg imagines a world in which everyone has the "same ability to share their opinions and speak freely -- I think that would be a much better place."
"Connectivity is a human right," he added.

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