Currently, Facebook, by providing free access to select websites, via its platform to a number of emerging economies, has become the internet to this substantive user base. Net neutrality here has evidently taken a backseat in the name of doing good and given Facebook a unique vantage point into database behaviour among this bop populace.

The question that remains is how to treat this rising populace as culturally diverse and yet refrain from exoticizing them; how to allow big data to be an empowering tool among emerging economies while simultaneously strengthening their institutions; and how to create alternative modes of inclusivity to the default neoliberal approach of the marketization of the poor.