Free Basics Banned In India- Leaving Mark Zuckerberg Astounded

Facebook's free-but-restricted internet service, Free Basics, has been banned in India after the country's national telecoms regulation authority (TRAI) ruled that the program disobey the principles of net-neutrality. The ruling was not directly aimed at Free Basics, but the general practice of zero-rated internet services — those that let users access specific websites and applications without cutting of their mobile data.

Free basics has already remained as a subject of controversy for long in India with people supporting free internet services pointed out that it is a violation of net neutrality. The service is termed as Internet.org by Facebook simply does not treat all content equivalents. Eventually, Facebook’s Free Basics Service was supposed to give people free access to websites like Wikipedia, BBC, Healthcare and educational service sites, weather report and obviously, Facebook - with a special collaboration with local mobile carriers, is now effectively banned in India. 

According to reports, net neutrality in India is not the only plan from Mark Zuckerberg of making the world online but India being one of the essential market,  had an effect for the decisions said ultimately by Telecom Authority of India (TRAI). Facebook spokesperson Kevin Martin who is also the vice president of the organization had said that they are primarily disappointed and surprised with  the decision from TRAI but their continuous efforts to mitigate the barriers and bring better opportunities to unconnected people will carry forward. The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg had reacted the same by saying "Instead of wanting to give people access to some basic internet services for free, critics of the program continue to spread false claims — even if that means leaving behind a billion people,” and added “Who could possibly be against this?”

This move from TRAI of banning free basics had made India a part of the small group of countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America who have supported and banned net neutrality. Though everybody is not an activist against net neutrality as it includes basic information to the people- but TRAI's installation of "Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations" states that providers cannot "offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content being accessed by a consumer” has surely increased the debate.