Mark Zuckerberg with President Xi Jinping of China on Wednesday. Credit
Pool photo by Ted S. Warren
Mark Zuckeberg, chief executive of Facebook, will help the United Nations bring Internet connections to refugee camps.
“It’s not all altruism,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in
an implicit acknowledgment that drawing new users to his service is also good
for Facebook’s bottom line. “We all benefit when we are more connected.”
Where and how Facebook will work
with refugee camps, he did not say.
Mr.
Zuckerberg’s remarks came at a lunch hosted by the United Nations Private
Sector Forum at the world body’s headquarters. It was attended by government
leaders and business executives.
One of the speakers was Angela
Merkel, the chancellor of Germany. Mr.
Zuckerberg sat next to her. His company has faced a rash of legal
trouble across Europe, including in Germany, over privacy concerns.
The connectivity ambitions are at
the center of Mr. Zuckerberg’s advocacy effort, Internet.org, whose goal is to
offer Internet access to about four billion people in the world who cannot
afford smartphones or do not live near fiber-optic cable lines or cell towers.
Internet.org teamed up with phone carriers to offer free access to Facebook and
other websites in developing countries like India.
In the courtyard of the General
Assembly building this past week, Facebook displayed pieces of the gigantic
drone that it is building to beam Wi-Fi connections to places that have none.
The drone is as big as a Boeing 737 and is solar-powered. It is one of several
efforts underway by technology companies to spread the Internet to unconnected
parts of the world.
Mr. Zuckerberg’s remarks coincided
with a petition that he began with the entertainer Bono, the philanthropist Mo
Ibrahim and others to expand connectivity, calling Internet access “essential”
and describing it as “an enabler of human rights.”
