Facebook Asks Indians, "Do You Support Internet.org?"

Ankita Katdare

Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Oct 27, 2024
India's Department of Telecommunications recently shared a report that says Facebook's Internet.org initiative does not comply with the Net Neutrality principle. The DoT report suggests that the app provides the users with access to only some websites and doesn't blocks the others. It was only natural for Facebook officials to disagree with the report. To prove their point, the company has started gathering support from Facebook users in India. Over the last week, may users saw a message on their profile timeline, which asked their opinion about provision of free basic internet services, even for people who can't afford to pay for it. The company hopes to raise all these voices to the level of Government and lets the numbers speak.

Internet.org_Logo​

Internet.org is a Facebook-led initiative launched globally in partnership with mobile operators as well as tech giants such as Samsung and Qualcomm. In India, Reliance Communications is the big partner for launching Internet.org.​

It seems that Facebook is convinced that if Indians stand by in solidarity for Internet.org before DoT panel presents the public opinion on its report, they could keep Internet.org functional in India.

Interestingly, the DoT report which was published via the Government's official MyGov website has received around 500 views. This is being compared to the 10 lakh+ messages that were sent by Indians to TRAI to show support for proper implementation of Net Neutrality in India.

What is your stand about the Facebook's initiative to gather support for internet.org? Share with us in comments below.
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  • Yash Pal

    Yash Pal

    @yash-pal-Kmtpym • Aug 10, 2015

    Allowing Internet.org., Airtel Zero and their present equivalents will go totally against principles of net neutrality. They have no egalitarian motives but would like to corner the market with their first mover advantage and restrict the content to what they want their users to access and derive maximum ad revenue. It is like poisoning the system.
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  • Anoop Kumar

    Anoop Kumar

    @anoop-kumar-GDGRCn • Aug 10, 2015

    Everyone bragging about net neutrality ... blah blah.
    What if telecom giants start giving govt online services for free (tax, weather, educational websites, farming related websites), do you still feel these should not be free and should be charged !
    Do you have any idea how it much benefit to farthest corner of country?

    I think govt. should tie-up with Facebook and start giving free access to at least IRCTC, ISRO weather and online courses from various institutes like IIT Lectures.

    Anyway, if two companies ties up to give something completely free, nothing wrong with that. That is the concept of toll free numbers and customer cares. If a person using only whatsapp and if a company providing it for free let it be.
    But yes, Internet data is data. There should not exclusive extra charging for something particular websites or service like charging voice data.
    Other argument is these free giving companies using customer data and taking over market. They will use in either way and this will happen in "Net-Neutrality".
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