A Postcolonial Genealogy of Facebook's Internet.org

Event date/time: 
Friday, December 7, 2018 - 2:30pm to 3:30pm
Place: 
ILC, Comm Hub

Please join us for the first lecture in the four-part Platform and Data Matters Seminar Series. Toussaint Nothias, Ph.D., lecturer in the Center for African Studies at Stanford University will present.

In 2013, Mark Zuckerberg launched the internet.org initiative aimed at connecting “the next 5 billion”. While initially presented as a techno-humanitarian and development initiative, several commentators denounced the project as a commercial strategy seeking to expand Facebook’s reach in emerging markets. In this talk, Dr. Nothias outlines a critical genealogy of Facebook’s connecting mission at the intersection of postcolonial theory, media globalization, and development studies. With a focus on the African contexts, he discusses how the processes of experimentation and extraction appear central to Internet.org, just like they were to colonialism.

Cosponsored by: Department of Communication and W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies.

Location: 
650 N. Pleasant St
Amherst, MA 01003
United States
Event Date: 
Friday, December 7, 2018 - 2:30pm
650 N. Pleasant St Amherst MA