Zuckerberg’s Free Basics On Hold Till At Least End Of January

The program, which was launched in over 35 developing countries across the globe, offers a pared-down web service for mobile phones, as well as access to the social network of the company and its messaging services, without any charge.

With the raging debate on the issue of Net neutrality, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has received over 18 lakh responses from stakeholders to its consultation paper on differential pricing for data services, the regulator said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, in India, 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”. About 3 million Egyptians used the “Free Basics” service, including more than one million people who didn’t previously use the Internet, a Facebook spokeswoman said.

This push has generated significant controversy, particularly in India, where critics say the effort is forcing users into a version of the Internet that is mediated entirely by Facebook. Free Basics, which was earlier known as Internet.org, has been criticised heavily in India as being against net neutrality. Through “Free Basics”, if Facebook is able to bring these users on to the internet and subsequently on its platform, it can see a tremendous growth in its user base. 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. It was suspended last week on the orders of, RS Sharma, the chairman of TRAI.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg vehemently disagreed with these claims, saying that “If we accept that everyone deserves access to the internet, then we must surely support free basic internet services“. And, why the telecom companies are offering free access to Facebook only. However, in India, for instance, the service has remained mired in controversy, with many alleging that free access to a limited number of internet services hurts India’s democracy and violates net neutrality – which calls for internet service providers to treat all content the same, regardless of the source.