In a Saturday speech at the United Nations, the Facebook head said that his website would team up with the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees to bring web access to refugee camps around the world.
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“It’s not all altruism”, Zuckerberg said later.
“Connectivity will help refugees better access support from the aid community and maintain links to family and loved ones”.
The 193 U.N. member nations on Friday formally adopted a sweeping set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, that aim to end poverty and combat inequality and climate change over the next 15 years and call for shared peace and prosperity.
Alongside the U.N event, Zuckerberg posted a Facebook photo about his hopes of making universal internet access a “global priority”. If they succeed, billions more people could use their services, helping to achieve Facebook’s stated goal of connecting everyone and Google’s of organizing the world’s information. “That is not good for anyone – not for the disempowered and disconnected, and not for the other half, whose commerce and security depend on having stable societies”, they wrote.
“Every country must now agree an urgent plan to implement the Global Goals, and mission-critical within those strategies is connectivity for all”, he said.
Facebook has always been recognized for its innovation and attention to social issues, and now CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a plan to connect even more people across the globe.
In April, 65 organisations from around the world sent an open letter to Mr Zuckerberg complaining that the project violated the principles of net neutrality in the guise of “access for impoverished people”.
According to reports, Facebook’s huge Boeing 737-sized drone is also underway to bring free Internet to everyone.
His movement is supported by a number of organizations, such as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Save the Children, TED, the United Nations Foundation, as well as known personalities like, Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, Shakira, George Takei, Charlize Theron, and Jimmy Wales to name a few. “It’s 2.7 billion [with internet access] and it’s growing slower than you’d imagine”.
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Jamie Drummond, co-founder and global executive director of One, added that internet access is a catalyst to “freedom, fairness, and dignity”. The largest social network in the world will be working with the intergovernmental body to provide internet access to refugee camps.
