Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Bites Back In Internet.org India Row

Zuckerberg reportedly argued in a blog post that Internet.org’s basic free services were not incompatible with net neutrality – the principle that all web services should be equally accessible. “We fully support net neutrality,” he wrote. “Universal connectivity and net neutrality can and must co-exist.” But critics were quick to respond. Writing in the Hindustan Times, India’s Save The Internet coalition maintained that Internet.org is “Zuckerberg’s ambitious project to confuse hundreds of millions of emerging market users into thinking that Facebook and the internet are one and the same.”

Distorting competition?

At the heart of the row is Internet.org’s policy of “zero-rating”, whereby telecoms providers agree not to pass on the costs of handling the data traffic so that consumers can receive services for free. Critics argue this has a distorting effect on competition, making it difficult for publishers not signed up to Internet.org to reach the hundreds of millions of poorer people in developing economies who have no internet access at all.

Read the full story, reported by the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32349480