Internet.org and the rhetoric of connectivity

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the discursive construction of Facebook’s goal to build Internet connectivity in India through its “internet.org” project. I argue that the rhetoric of connectivity emergent in this project uses the language of empowerment and innovation to operationalize a mode of entrepreneurial philanthropy amenable to millennial development that in reality reflects notions of progress reminiscent of colonial modernization practices. I also contend that this case demonstrates the need to understand the particular technopolitics of everyday encounters with infrastructures that cannot be reduced to any single vision of connectivity or singular understanding of digital contexts.