The basis of a free Internet, where all information packets are treated equally without any discrimination, is in danger. In Nicaragua, these developments are already leading to an internet of three classes, where the poorest have the fewest opportunities. And remarkably, people blindly fall for the shiny lies of the telecommunication industry.

Some weeks ago, “La Prensa” and “El Nuevo Diario”, the two largest national newspapers, even gave the biggest internet provider the entire front page, with the title “Nicaragua, more connected than ever”. The reality is that, despite being the country with the least connectivity in Latin America, Nicaragua also has one of the unfairest Internets in the world: there are three different classes of internet, which provide very unequal opportunities to the population:

The first group of internet users is very small, the elite, which has a regular internet connection at home. Depending on the source, this amounts to 3.4% (TELCOR) to 15.5% (Internet World Stats) of the population. These people can use all kinds of internet services, use it for work and their own entertainment and, most importantly, for their personal growth.

The second group is much bigger (very difficult to measure, I would roughly estimate around 30% of the population) and has only partial access to the internet. They can access the internet at their workplace, go to cyber cafés to use the internet on an hourly basis or connect to the publicly available wifi internet in the central parks of Nicaragua’s major cities. They use the internet for communication and specific research for their work, university or school assignments. But the use of the internet for their personal benefit always happens under limiting pressure.

And then there are, as numerous as the previous group, the most discriminated against and limited internet users - the poorest people with the lowest level of education. They get an internet cut into pieces. A lot of so-called “offers” are prepaid packages to use certain services like Facebook or WhatsApp, charged daily on mobile phones.

These people are far from being sovereign users of the internet. Their interaction is limited to certain services and their communication is always monitored. Most of the positive effects the internet offers the first group — the freedom to inform themselves, the opportunity for self-directed learning, and fair and equal access — cannot be expected when only using a tiny fraction of the internet.

The internet as we know it is being sold in pieces which are charged differently. This is a great business for the telecommunication providers, but a clear and unnecessary limitation for the consumers and, as can be observed in Nicaragua, directly related to wealth and opportunities.

Instead of falling for misleading promises — as La Prensa and El Nuevo Diario did with their front-page headlines — we, all over the world, must demand the same principles for technology that we expect in regular life. Free speech and equal opportunities without discrimination are foundational to our modern societies. We define liberty by the freedom to move wherever we wish, and this must equally be guaranteed for our communication and access to information.