America
Zuckerberg says his new platform can co-exist with net neutrality
New Delhi, April 15
Joining the debate over
unfettered Net access, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday said
Internet.org -- a platform that offers free access to data and customers
and with Reliance Communications as its India partner -- can co-exist
with net neutrality.
Reliance Communications, part of the Anil
Ambani-led group, was been roped in by Facebook recently to offer free
access to data and websites to its customers through the social
networking site's global digital inclusion initiative -- Internet.org.
Zuckerberg's
comment come at a time when there is a raging debate in India over the
issue of net neutrality, with the watchdog, the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India, calling for comments from all stakeholders, before
submitting its recommendations to the government.
"I think net
neutrality is important to make sure network operators don't
discriminate and limit access to services people want to use, especially
in countries where most people are online,†the Facebook co-founder
said.
“For people who are not on the internet though, having some
connectivity and some ability to share is always much better than
having no ability to connect and share at all. That's why programmes
like Internet.org are important and can co-exist with net neutrality
regulations."
Earlier this week, India's Communications and IT
Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that a panel examining the issue will
submit its report by the second week of May to help the government take a
comprehensive decision on the contentious issue.
E-commerce
giant Flipkart on Tuesday said it is "walking away" from Airtel Zero as
it is committed to "the larger cause of net neutrality" but Bharti
Airtel said it also fully supported the concept and there was some
"misconception" about its toll-free platform.
"We at Flipkart
have always strongly believed in the concept of net neutrality, for we
exist because of the Internet," said the e-commerce company in a
statement.
"We will be walking away from the ongoing discussions
with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero (An open-marketing platform
that allows customers to access a variety of mobile applications for
free, with the data charges being paid by the companies owning the
application).
"We will be committing ourselves to the larger
cause of net neutrality in India. We will be internally discussing over
the next few days, the details of actions we will take to support the
cause," the statement added.
Net neutrality means that
governments and internet service providers should treat all data on the
internet equally -- therefore, not charging users, content, platform,
site, application or mode of communication differentially.