Google makes Net Neutrality in India difficult, prevents IMA’s opposition of

According to a report by MediaNama, a information and evaluation web site that focuses on digital and telecom sectors in India, Vineeta Dixit, a member of Google’s public coverage and authorities relations workforce, pushed for removing of any point out of “Zero Rating” from the IAMAI’s submission to the Department of Telecom, in response to its report.

Net neutrality calls for equal treatment to all Internet traffic without any priority treatment to an entity or company on the basis of payment for content or service providers such as telecom companies, which is seen as discriminatory.

The deadline to submit comments and suggestions to the government on net neutrality on mygov.in is ending on Thursday.

Google had recently taken a backseat when it came to announcing Zero rating plan, thanks to the severe backlash from the consumers against Airtel Zero. However, they had not mentioned Zero Rating in their report. Also it decided not to depose before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT looking into net neutrality, even after receiving a specific invite from it. After these revelations from MediaNama regarding Google’s stand, it is now clear why DoT was not able to mention Zero Rating in their report. Google submits that in designing the regulatory environment for the National Broadband Plan, TRAI should consider the ways in which broadband providers practices can threaten this openness.

It is to be noted that Google had held back users in India from using free data by zero rating certain apps in May, following the public outrage against the offerings by Facebook’s and Airtel’s zero rated offerings. She argues in her email dated on August 14 to IAMAI government relations committee that proper consensus among internet companies was not taken on the issue.

It is but obvious for us to glance over Google’s stance over net neutrality in other countries.

It seems IAMAI is slowly but steadily inclining towards anti-net neutrality plans, influenced by Google Facebook’s team work.