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”. The latest development in this matter is the massive campaign by Facebook urging people to send emails to TRAI in favour of its Free Basics. Reliance Communications is the only telecom partner to offer a basic set of internet services free to its subscribers in India. In a statement the agency says the comments do not in any way address specific questions raised by net neutrality advocates. 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. “Because if they sign on, Free Basics can give them phenomenal reach”, said Guhesh Ramanathan, cofounder of Excubator, a startup incubator in Bengaluru.
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The regulator has received 3.81 lakh comments from people claiming supporters of net neutrality.
Sharma said more than three-quarters of these 1.82 million comments will be disregarded as they did not follow the proper format.
Facebook and other social media sites are extremely popular in Egypt, and were used to organize protests during the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
This has, therefore, prompted TRAI to extend the deadline of receiving the comments on its Consultation Paper to January 7, instead of December 30 and review of the comments to January 14 from January 7.
Facebook’s Free Basics service allows users access to Facebook and some other websites free of charge and without using mobile data, which can be expensive in Egypt.
He didn’t mention that the platform only provides access to websites that meet certain data requirements, which seems at odds with net neutrality.
Any decision on differential pricing and zero rating made after the expiry of the deadline for submitting comments would impact Free Basics as well.
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Facebook also said that it will try to resolve the situation in Egypt to bring back the Free Basics program; and added: “We are committed to Free Basics, and we’re going to keep working to serve our community to provide access to connectivity and valuable services”.
