Zuckerberg pledges internet for refugee camps

“It’s not all altruism”, Zuckerberg said later.

Facebook is also committed to eradicate extreme poverty from the face of the earth by 2030, a goal that was set on Friday.

Mark Zuckerberg claims “when communities are connected, we can lift them out of poverty” and that “we can and must do more” to accomplish this humanitarian goal.

In the courtyard of the General Assembly building this past week, Facebook displayed pieces of the mammoth drone that it is building to beam Wi-Fi connections to places that have none.

Zuckerberg ackowledged the fact that his agenda in giving free Internet to refugees, and to the four million other people in the world unable to access the Web because they can not afford computers or smartphones, is not altogether altruistic.

“In the short term to address the current crises we will be working with UNCHR to bring the internet to refugee camps”, Zuckerberg said at a United Nations forum in New York.

A new United Nations report on global access to broadband finds that 57 percent of the world, or 4 billion people, remains unconnected.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Saturday promised German Chancellor Angela Merkel that his company would work on measures to combat racist and hateful comments on the social media platform.

“But this product in no way connects to or registers support for Internet.org. We are changing the code today to eliminate any confusion”, the statement said. Internet Access is the key to melting away rigorous poverty.

Zuckerberg is expected to host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday for a town hall Q&A session at Facebook’s headquarters. He relayed stories of farmers who have to use the Internet for the first time to check crop prices and of families who are better able to care for themselves with access to health information.

Zuckerberg has come under fire of late for his own attempts to broaden access to the internet, in particular his Internet.org programme. Search engine giant Google also announced its plans on delivering Internet access via balloons.

Many Facebook users reported on Sunday difficulty in accessing their accounts.