Mark Zuckerberg: Let’s give everybody internet by 2020

Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of the largest social media website on Earth, and a group of other prominent figures associated with the online world have launched a new campaign with the goal of making Internet access available to everybody on Earth by 2020.

The Connect the World campaign, which has also garnered the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, entrepreneur Richard Branson, media mogul Arianna Huffington and others, believes that bringing people online could combat global ills by making people more likely to share knowledge and by creating new opportunities.

“A ‘like’ or a post won’t stop a tank or a bullet, but when people are connected, we have a chance to build a common global community with a shared understanding,” Zuckerberg said at a United Nations luncheon over the weekend, according to Reuters. “That’s a powerful force.”

Zuckerberg’s call to action, VentureBeat added, is an attempt to raise awareness of the Global Goal initiative adopted by the 193 member nations of the UN last week. Among the goals listed in that so-called global to-do list, the website said, is one demanding Internet access for all parts of the world (including the least-developed nations) within the next five years.

Zuckerberg also plans to bring refugee camps online

Organizers of the Connect the World campaign claim that there are roughly four billion people worldwide who currently do not have Internet access, and Zuckerberg and his colleagues hope to put pressure on governments, businesses, inventors and others to rectify that situation.

In a Saturday speech at the UN, the Facebook head said that his website would team up with the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees to bring web access to refugee camps around the world. “The Internet is a vital enabler of jobs, growth and opportunity,” he said, “and research tells us that for every 10 people connected to the internet, about 1 is lifted out of poverty.”

“Internet access is a catalyst for creating a world of greater freedom, fairness and dignity for all peoples, everywhere,” added Jamie Drummond, co-founder and global executive director of the poverty-fighting group one ONE. “Every country must now agree an urgent plan to implement the Global Goals, and mission-critical within those strategies is connectivity for all.”