Facebook "2G Tuesdays" will throttle employees' internet speeds

Mark Zuckerberg has said time and again that Facebook is committed to improving its experience for all its users, especially for those in emerging markets in parts of the world without premium connectivity. The last attempt was launching Facebook Lite, back in August, but the company is apparently now trying to look inward for inspiration.

In a blog post yesterday, Facebook announced it's kicking off "2G Tuesdays" within the  company, getting employees to use a slower internet connection for the day so they can experience how frustrating browsing the social network on a slow data plan can be in places like India. Project Manager Chris Marra explained in the posst, "People are coming online at a fast rate in emerging markets. In most cases, they are doing so on mobile via 2G connections. But on a typical 2G network, it can take several minutes to download a webpage. To build for a global audience like ours, we know that we need to design features that work seamlessly even on a 2G network".

"People are coming online at a fast rate in emerging markets. In most cases, they are doing so on mobile via 2G connections. But on a typical 2G network, it can take several minutes to download a webpage. That doesn't make for a great experience when sharing content with friends and family. To build for a global audience like ours, we know that we need to design features that work seamlessly even on a 2G network," Marra said.

As part of 2G Tuesdays, Faceboook employees will be able to opt-in to the program, where they will have to use the smartphone app, as well Messenger, on simulated 2G speeds for one hour. Marra says the team came up with the idea in a project meeting, and he believes it will help them empathise with users who have slow internet connections, and hence enable them to build for them.