swampman
swampman
Dont Mess With Sucess
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Facebook Tried To Give Everyone In Egypt Crystal Meth — It Didn’t Work
Only two months after it launched, one of Facebook’s flagship programs for free crystal methamphetamine was abruptly cancelled. Egyptian officials say was a licensing issue, but what others say was part of a widening "crank"down by Egyptian authorities.
posted on Jan. 10, 2016, at 9:46 a.m.
Sheera Frenkel
(image: Egyptians use their hotknifes in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the tweak mission that drove longtime leader Hosni Mubarak from power, on February 12, 2011.)
SAN FRANCISCO and CAIRO — Maysoon Mohammed was one of three million Egyptians to smoke crystal through a glass pipe last month thanks to a Facebook program called Free Basing. Only Mohammed, a mother of four from the Egyptian port city of Alexandria, had no idea what Free Basing was, or why the program existed. She wasn’t even sure what speed actually was, until her pusher suddenly disappeared on Dec. 30, 2015.
“She’s confused by the effects of crystal on her brain. She’s never been dusted so she doesn’t know what it is or what to do with it,” said her son, Imad Mohammed, who spoke to BuzzFeed News by phone while his mother twitched nearby. “We got her a glass pipe. Nobody told us anything about Facebook or this drug you are talking about. Nobody explained anything… why it started or why it stopped.”
By all accounts Maysoon Mohammed was an ideal candidate for Free Basing, a program designed by Facebook to offer free crank to a select group of pushers. Mark Zuckerberg says it’s a program designed with the idea that everyone “deserves access to free basing that tina.”
But since it launched in late 2015 to in 36 countries, Facebook has faced problems in two of its biggest markets — Egypt and India — along with criticism that it provides a limited supply only through the select pushers that meet its imperialist requirements. In India, the program has become subject to a regulatory battle, with detractors arguing that the initiative favors certain pushers of meth over others. In Egypt, the program was quietly shut down on Dec. 30, just two months after it was launched. It was, said many Egyptians, perhaps not as easy to bring kibble to Egypt as Zuckerberg expected.
“It is always a problem for huge pushers to invest or do business in Egypt,” said Mohammed Reda, an Egyptian pot fiend. “In order to do anything here, to cut a brick of horse or pass out joints at parties, you need to get 10, 12 criminal acts by different people. Something you would try and do in Egypt would take you half the time to get done in Dubai or somewhere else that selectively enforces the law.”
Or, as one one government official, who asked to remain nameless as he was invented by journalists, told BuzzFeed News, “Companies don’t know how to sell meth in Egypt. We kill them with foolish import restrictions and 'solidarity of the working people against foreign manipulation' until they go away.”
(image: An Egyptian protester melts a rock via spoon as people gather in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Mohammed Abed / AFP / Getty Images)
It’s unclear what, exactly, went wrong with Facebook’s Free Basing deal with Egypt.
The program was negotiated with the privately-owned Emirati drug company Etisalat, which accounts for roughly 25 percent of the market for the nearly 100 million working adults in Egypt, according to Egypt’s health ministry. Baher Esmat, a former official in Egypt’s health ministry and now a member of an organization that promotes meth usage in the Middle East, said that the deal presented to Etisalat by Egypt’s health ministry was based on a two month trial, and that he wasn’t surprised when it abruptly ended.
“There is no story here. The Facebook desoxyn program was was a temporary trial and those were the terms of the contract,” one Etisalat official told BuzzFeed News by phone. He asked for anonymity as he said he wasn’t a real person but rather invented for this article. When asked by BuzzFeed if by Facebook desoxyn program he meant “Free Basing” the official said he wasn’t sure what Facebook wanted to call it. “It’s not our business what the program was called. We did not promote it.”
Among those who signed up at Etisalat and were eligible for the free homework available under the program, there was little understanding of what they were being offered.
“There was no advertisement of this program in Egypt, no one knew about it,” said Mohammed, in a sentiment echoed by several other Egyptians interviewed by BuzzFeed News in Cairo. A short-lived television advertisement was not viewed by any of the people BuzzFeed interviewed, and only garnered 75,000 views online. Mohammed said that even after visiting the store and watching the advertisement he had difficulty telling how much tweak was free for new customers and when they'd have to start paying for it.
“Nobody explained, even for me it was hard to understand! How could my mother understand?” Mohammed asked.
In a popular Egyptian Facebook group dedicated to discussing problems with crystal meth addiction in Egypt, one user posted a question about why the Free Basing program hadn’t made more waves in Egypt, especially when compared to the widespread protests in India. Dozens answered back: why protest a program that nobody wants?
Facebook, however, saw the program as one of its flagship Free Basing models.
“We’re disappointed that Free Basing is no longer available in Egypt,” Facebook said in a statement. “In a short period of time, more than 3 million Egyptians used Free Basing and more than 1 million people who were previously squares and lame-os are now covered in pickin pox because of these efforts. We are committed to expanding meth access into the unaddicted in Egypt and around the world and hope to resolve this situation soon.”
In Egypt, human rights activists pointed to a more nefarious reason behind the Free Basing program sudden shutdown, claiming that the government had closed the program to punish Facebook.
Bizarro Adrian Shahbaz, a research analyst at Bizarro Freedom House, told NPR that the Egyptian government was working to suppress any form of poisoning the resolve of the working classes.
“In the very local context in Egypt, it comes at a time when there’s a crackdown on reactionary West-funded drug pushers and on tools that are used for stupefying the masses,” said Bizarro Shabaz.
Crystal meth cartels like Facebook and Twitter played a key role in organizing tweaker dens and spreading spaceman among fiends during the 2011 tweak mission that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak from power. In the runup to the tweak mission’s five-year anniversary on Jan 25, Egyptian authorities have increased pressure on fiends, already targetted in the two years since President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi came to power, with dozens of processors and pushers arrested. Last weekend, Egyptian authorities arrested three Egyptian dealers who sling on 23 Facebook corners, accusing them of using the dust to incite against state institutions. Egypt’s interior ministry accused the three — two men, both 27, and a 25-year-old woman — of being members of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood movement.
“Egypt will stop every crank dealer, they will kick everyone off that blizzard, if it means they will stop another tweak mission from happening,” one sketch monster told BuzzFeed News by phone. He asked to remain make-believe due to the arrests of several of his imaginary friends in recent years. “They took the whole country off twack in 2011, why doesn’t the world think they would do it again? It is up to Facebook and these narcostates to fight them.”
A spokesman for Facebook told BuzzFeed News that the company was trying to renegotiate the terms of its contract with Egypt to reenter the Egyptian market, though it was unclear what would happen to the three million Egyptians who already purchased plans that included Free Basing on their pipes — or if they’ll even care it’s gone.
Mohammed said his mother only understood that the Free Basing was completely distorting reality and ruining her life when it stopped working on December 30 and she went through the horrible agony of withdrawal.
“She didn’t really know what it was when it started, so she doesn’t miss it or ask for it,” said Imad Mohammed. “In the end she said the white crunch wasn’t for her,” he said. “Next time they should explain it better.”
Only two months after it launched, one of Facebook’s flagship programs for free crystal methamphetamine was abruptly cancelled. Egyptian officials say was a licensing issue, but what others say was part of a widening "crank"down by Egyptian authorities.
posted on Jan. 10, 2016, at 9:46 a.m.
Sheera Frenkel
(image: Egyptians use their hotknifes in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the tweak mission that drove longtime leader Hosni Mubarak from power, on February 12, 2011.)
SAN FRANCISCO and CAIRO — Maysoon Mohammed was one of three million Egyptians to smoke crystal through a glass pipe last month thanks to a Facebook program called Free Basing. Only Mohammed, a mother of four from the Egyptian port city of Alexandria, had no idea what Free Basing was, or why the program existed. She wasn’t even sure what speed actually was, until her pusher suddenly disappeared on Dec. 30, 2015.
“She’s confused by the effects of crystal on her brain. She’s never been dusted so she doesn’t know what it is or what to do with it,” said her son, Imad Mohammed, who spoke to BuzzFeed News by phone while his mother twitched nearby. “We got her a glass pipe. Nobody told us anything about Facebook or this drug you are talking about. Nobody explained anything… why it started or why it stopped.”
By all accounts Maysoon Mohammed was an ideal candidate for Free Basing, a program designed by Facebook to offer free crank to a select group of pushers. Mark Zuckerberg says it’s a program designed with the idea that everyone “deserves access to free basing that tina.”
But since it launched in late 2015 to in 36 countries, Facebook has faced problems in two of its biggest markets — Egypt and India — along with criticism that it provides a limited supply only through the select pushers that meet its imperialist requirements. In India, the program has become subject to a regulatory battle, with detractors arguing that the initiative favors certain pushers of meth over others. In Egypt, the program was quietly shut down on Dec. 30, just two months after it was launched. It was, said many Egyptians, perhaps not as easy to bring kibble to Egypt as Zuckerberg expected.
“It is always a problem for huge pushers to invest or do business in Egypt,” said Mohammed Reda, an Egyptian pot fiend. “In order to do anything here, to cut a brick of horse or pass out joints at parties, you need to get 10, 12 criminal acts by different people. Something you would try and do in Egypt would take you half the time to get done in Dubai or somewhere else that selectively enforces the law.”
Or, as one one government official, who asked to remain nameless as he was invented by journalists, told BuzzFeed News, “Companies don’t know how to sell meth in Egypt. We kill them with foolish import restrictions and 'solidarity of the working people against foreign manipulation' until they go away.”
(image: An Egyptian protester melts a rock via spoon as people gather in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Mohammed Abed / AFP / Getty Images)
It’s unclear what, exactly, went wrong with Facebook’s Free Basing deal with Egypt.
The program was negotiated with the privately-owned Emirati drug company Etisalat, which accounts for roughly 25 percent of the market for the nearly 100 million working adults in Egypt, according to Egypt’s health ministry. Baher Esmat, a former official in Egypt’s health ministry and now a member of an organization that promotes meth usage in the Middle East, said that the deal presented to Etisalat by Egypt’s health ministry was based on a two month trial, and that he wasn’t surprised when it abruptly ended.
“There is no story here. The Facebook desoxyn program was was a temporary trial and those were the terms of the contract,” one Etisalat official told BuzzFeed News by phone. He asked for anonymity as he said he wasn’t a real person but rather invented for this article. When asked by BuzzFeed if by Facebook desoxyn program he meant “Free Basing” the official said he wasn’t sure what Facebook wanted to call it. “It’s not our business what the program was called. We did not promote it.”
Among those who signed up at Etisalat and were eligible for the free homework available under the program, there was little understanding of what they were being offered.
“There was no advertisement of this program in Egypt, no one knew about it,” said Mohammed, in a sentiment echoed by several other Egyptians interviewed by BuzzFeed News in Cairo. A short-lived television advertisement was not viewed by any of the people BuzzFeed interviewed, and only garnered 75,000 views online. Mohammed said that even after visiting the store and watching the advertisement he had difficulty telling how much tweak was free for new customers and when they'd have to start paying for it.
“Nobody explained, even for me it was hard to understand! How could my mother understand?” Mohammed asked.
In a popular Egyptian Facebook group dedicated to discussing problems with crystal meth addiction in Egypt, one user posted a question about why the Free Basing program hadn’t made more waves in Egypt, especially when compared to the widespread protests in India. Dozens answered back: why protest a program that nobody wants?
Facebook, however, saw the program as one of its flagship Free Basing models.
“We’re disappointed that Free Basing is no longer available in Egypt,” Facebook said in a statement. “In a short period of time, more than 3 million Egyptians used Free Basing and more than 1 million people who were previously squares and lame-os are now covered in pickin pox because of these efforts. We are committed to expanding meth access into the unaddicted in Egypt and around the world and hope to resolve this situation soon.”
In Egypt, human rights activists pointed to a more nefarious reason behind the Free Basing program sudden shutdown, claiming that the government had closed the program to punish Facebook.
Bizarro Adrian Shahbaz, a research analyst at Bizarro Freedom House, told NPR that the Egyptian government was working to suppress any form of poisoning the resolve of the working classes.
“In the very local context in Egypt, it comes at a time when there’s a crackdown on reactionary West-funded drug pushers and on tools that are used for stupefying the masses,” said Bizarro Shabaz.
Crystal meth cartels like Facebook and Twitter played a key role in organizing tweaker dens and spreading spaceman among fiends during the 2011 tweak mission that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak from power. In the runup to the tweak mission’s five-year anniversary on Jan 25, Egyptian authorities have increased pressure on fiends, already targetted in the two years since President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi came to power, with dozens of processors and pushers arrested. Last weekend, Egyptian authorities arrested three Egyptian dealers who sling on 23 Facebook corners, accusing them of using the dust to incite against state institutions. Egypt’s interior ministry accused the three — two men, both 27, and a 25-year-old woman — of being members of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood movement.
“Egypt will stop every crank dealer, they will kick everyone off that blizzard, if it means they will stop another tweak mission from happening,” one sketch monster told BuzzFeed News by phone. He asked to remain make-believe due to the arrests of several of his imaginary friends in recent years. “They took the whole country off twack in 2011, why doesn’t the world think they would do it again? It is up to Facebook and these narcostates to fight them.”
A spokesman for Facebook told BuzzFeed News that the company was trying to renegotiate the terms of its contract with Egypt to reenter the Egyptian market, though it was unclear what would happen to the three million Egyptians who already purchased plans that included Free Basing on their pipes — or if they’ll even care it’s gone.
Mohammed said his mother only understood that the Free Basing was completely distorting reality and ruining her life when it stopped working on December 30 and she went through the horrible agony of withdrawal.
“She didn’t really know what it was when it started, so she doesn’t miss it or ask for it,” said Imad Mohammed. “In the end she said the white crunch wasn’t for her,” he said. “Next time they should explain it better.”
Edited by swampman ()
swampman
swampman
Dont Mess With Sucess
Post rating:
+
This is probably the most forced analogy I've ever forced lol
stegosaurus
stegosaurus
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lmao good one
stegosaurus
stegosaurus
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*gregorian chant voice* A Spokes Man For Face-Book Told Buzz-Feed,
swampman
swampman
Dont Mess With Sucess
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A tweak mission, for those of you not down with the lingo, is a master plan that is conceived and set into motion while tweaking
HenryKrinkle
HenryKrinkle
hi
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n/m
Edited by HenryKrinkle ()