A member of Google’s Public Policy and and Government Relations team, Vineeta Dixit, diligently asked for removal of mention of any Zero Rating from the IAMAI’s submission, which is being submitted as a response to the Department of Telecom’s report on Net Neutrality.
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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.
Google’s support for zero rating plans is indeed shocking, as they had always advocated a boundary-less, open and free Internet for all.
As per the report, Dixit’s e mail to the IAMAI authorities relations committee requested for the removing of any reference to Zero Rating arguing that there was no consensus amongst web corporations on the difficulty. The Zero Rating acts against the basic concept of level playing field and it in fact creates a severe disparity among the service providers. ” The Internet giant had further stressed upon the idea that “no matter what choice TRAI ultimately makes with respect to the forms of technology or the structure of the agency to implement the National Broadband Plan, it must explicitly put in place safeguards to protect network neutrality in the regulatory framework for the project”.
The Medianama report adds that only Facebook in the IAMAI has taken a stand supporting zero rating, as suggested by another set of alleged emails.
Google seems to be a corporate rendition of Batman’s Two-Face. The company withdrew separate charge plan following protest from public. Net neutrality is must for bringing equality on digital platforms. “I support Net neutrality“.
As the deadline for the comments on DoT’s report ended yesterday, Govt. has already received more than 73,000 comments from concerned Internet users all over the country.
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Both Google and Facebook have failed to respond these allegations of lobbying inside IAMAI.
