Why India Blocked Facebook's Free Basics Internet Program, Zero-rating

UPDATE: Why India Blocked Facebook's 'Free Basics' Internet Program? Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jeremy Malcolm and Techonomy chief executive officer David Kirkpatrick discussed net neutrality and India's banning Facebook’s free basics with Emily Chang on “Bloomberg West” --UPDATE note: video subsequently removed by Bloomberg but essentially EFF's Jeremy Malcolm said the program violates "zero-rating" aspect of net neutrality.

Zero-rating - Wikipedia: "Internet services like Facebook, Wikipedia and Google have built special programs to use zero-rating as means to provide their service more broadly into developing markets.[citation needed] The benefit for these new customers, who will mostly have to rely on mobile networks to connect to the Internet, would be a subsidised access to services from these service providers. The results of these efforts have been mixed, with adoption in a number of markets, sometimes overestimated expectations and perceived lack of benefits for mobile network operators. In Chile, the national telecom regulator ruled that this practice violated net neutrality laws and had to end by June 1, 2014"

India’s Blow Against Facebook Sets Up a Grand Experiment in Net Neutrality: "The ruling from India’s regulator ... [m]aking data for certain services free is anticompetitive and gives companies undue control over the information and services poor people can access, it says: “Allowing price differentiation based on the type of content being accessed on the internet, would militate against the very basis on which the internet has developed and transformed the way we connect with one another.”"

Free Basics by Facebook – Internet.org: "Free Basics by Facebook provides people with access to useful services on their mobile phones in markets where internet access may be less affordable. The websites are available for free without data charges, and include content on things like news, employment, health, education and local information. By introducing people to the benefits of the internet through these websites, we hope to bring more people online and help improve their lives."
More info: Where Free Basics Is Available – Internet.org

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