Facebook founder defends Internet.org from critics
During a conversation at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi on Wednesday, Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg reiterated his commitment to providing free Internet services to the world鈥檚 poorest communities.
鈥淥ur mission is to give every person in the world the power to share what's important to them and connect every person in the world,鈥� .
Mr. Zuckerberg鈥檚 visit to India came about a month after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Facebook鈥檚 offices in Menlo Park, California.
During that Modi visit in September, Zuckerberg announced his intention to bring Internet.org to India. He is hoping that the project will achieve more widespread popularity now, under the new, rebranded name of Free Basics.
India is one of Facebook鈥檚 largest user bases, with more than 130 million active users.
At the India town hall meeting, Zuckerberg acknowledged this, saying that because India has one of Facebook鈥檚 largest user populations, it is important to listen to and understand India鈥檚 concerns.
But many Indians are wary that Internet.org is merely a cover for Zuckerberg to get more Indians on Facebook, rather than a means to enable them to access the Internet in its entirety.
鈥淲hat they say and what they do are two different things.鈥� Nikhil Pahwa, founder of the technology news website Medianama, 鈥淲hat Facebook is doing is to suck internet into Facebook.鈥�
Internet.org has for possibly violating net-neutrality agreements. In India, Internet.org has an agreement with Reliance Communications, a telecommunications company, to provide simple services like connectivity and messaging through its platform. Internet.org鈥檚 critics are concerned that the agreement Internet.org has with Reliance may block smaller communications companies and developers from gaining access to or selling services through the application.
鈥淚t is our belief that Facebook is improperly defining net neutrality in public statements and building a walled garden in which the world's poorest people will only be able to access a limited set of insecure websites and services,鈥� a group of developers from all over the world, including India and Pakistan, .
Earlier this year, Zuckerberg detailing his position on net neutrality.
"We fully support net neutrality. We want to keep the internet open. Net neutrality ensures network operators don鈥檛 discriminate by limiting access to services you want to use. It鈥檚 an essential part of the open internet, and we are fully committed to it. Internet.org doesn鈥檛 block or throttle any other services or create fast lanes 鈥� and it never will. We鈥檙e open for all mobile operators and we鈥檙e not stopping anyone from joining. We want as many internet providers to join so as many people as possible can be connected," Zuckerberg wrote.
