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Facebook’s Free Basics service suspended in Egypt
According to a report by the Associated Press, the program aims to bring free access to limited Internet services in developing countries.
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In the recent past, Facebook’s similar initiative called Internet.org was stalled after it received negative reviews from the believers in digital equality.
Facebook, which launched in Egypt in October, said the program allowed 1 million people to go online for the first time.
However, Net neutrality activists say such a move will violate the core principle that everyone should have unrestricted access to the Internet and it should not be regulated by a company. While Facebook argues for Net Neutrality laws in the United States, and supports permission-less innovation in that country, in India, it wants a permission-based Internet through its partnership for Free Basics.
The industry group said also that even the pricing models suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in a discussion paper on differential pricing for data services contravene the watchdog’s own stated principles of being non-discriminatory, transparent, non-predatory, and non-misleading.
Sharma said although these comments are also in template form, they answer all the questions with minor variations.
For those who are yet to be part of the ongoing debate, Free Basics is an app that gives users selective access to services like communication, healthcare, education, job listings and farming information – all without data charges.
Zuckerberg has got personally involved. And Facebook has issued a series of full-page newspaper advertisements and set up billboard banners in an unusual and aggressive campaign to counter the protests.
For now, the reasons behind the decision for the banning of “Free Basics” in Egypt are not clear.
In each of these countries, the Free Basics service is facilitated through partnerships with mobile network operators that are willing to adopt the service. Authorities in Egypt effectively suspended the service when a required permit was not renewed after it lapsed on Wednesday.
Karthik Balakrishnan, a member of savetheinternet.in, agreed with Trai’s views that the issue was larger than just Free Basics.
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Chairman R.S Sharma has moved to reiterate that the consultation paper was not in any way an ‘opinion paper’.