Facebook Is Asking Its Employees to Endure 2G Speeds for Just an Hour a Week

In an effort to better understand global users who still use phones that have much slower 2G connections, Facebook is implementing a program for its employees called "2G Tuesdays."

Every Tuesday, any Facebook employee using the Facebook mobile app will have the option of using the app with a simulated 2G connection. The initiative doesn't run all day, though—if employees opt in, they will only be subjected to slow speeds for only an hour.

Business Insider notes that while most US users have 3G or 4G networks, users in other countries are still stuck with 2G, and "with that kind of connection, a webpage can take over 2 minutes to load."

It's crucial for Facebook to address the notorious privilege gap between Silicon Valley tech employees and consumers in less well-connected markets, as 84 percent of Facebook users are accessing the site from outside the US. As engineering director Tom Allison told Business Insider, it was startling to see the difference in trying to access the Facebook app via a 2G network. "It definitely tested my patience—it felt like parts of the product were just broken."

Facebook has already done a fair amount of work to address the issue, building a system that lets the app determine the strength of a user's connection, and organizing News Feed accordingly (prioritizing status updates over data drains like videos, for example.) They've also established Internet.org to help bring the internet to areas around the world that lack access, as well as an app called Free Basics that provides free access to the mobile web for essential information.

How successful efforts like Internet.org may actually be remains to be seen. In India, a country that founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is currently visiting, the platform has come under criticism for only offering free internet access to select services and not the wider internet. Zuckerberg has refused to answer any questions about Internet.org during his trip.

But Facebook hopes the new initiative will inspire developers to see even more room for improvement in emerging markets, and better optimize Facebook for global users connecting via 2G.