IIT, IISc faculty slam Facebook’s Free Basics

New Delhi, Dec.31: The premier Indian Institute Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), have criticised the social networking giant Facebook’s free basics initiative labelling it as “flawed” and “misleading”.

According to Facebook, it has been able to offer Free Basics services to a billion people across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

TRAI has asked Facebook and its India telecom partner Reliance Communications Ltd to put on hold the launch of the Free Basics service till the final rules are in place.

India has become a battleground over the right to unrestricted Internet access, with local tech start-ups joining the front line against Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg and his plan to roll out free Internet to the country’s masses.

“This isn’t about Facebook’s commercial interests – there aren’t even any ads in the version of Facebook in Free Basics”.

This is the second time the regulatory body has sought views and comments on for framing policies on internet services. The move comes amid growing debate over whether the service, which critics say would create a “walled garden” prioritizing some websites over others, violates the principles of net neutrality.

The service was suspended in India last week. “More than 1 million people who were previously unconnected had been using the Internet because of these efforts”.

Trai Chairman R S Sharma said that the authority has got about 18.27 lakh responses till now out of which 8.9 lakh through phone and 5.44 lakh through Facebook mail supporting Free Basics but the comments did not answer the questions asked by the regulator.

Free Basics, which Facebook is promoting with double-page newspaper advertisements for days as also through TV, billboards and online forums, is being seen in many quarters as being against the basic principles of Net Neutrality. Free Basics is still live in over 30 countries.