Mark Zuckerberg is coming to Delhi next week where he will conduct a town hall meeting. We have already seen how India is important to Facebook , and how the social giant is doing its bit to tap into the startup boom in the country. In the run up to the town hall, here’s a look at an initiative that has constantly put the company and its CEO under the glaring spotlight — Internet.org.
Zuckerberg launched Internet.org last year with an aim of bringing affordable Internet access to the world. ”We believe that every person should have access to free basic internet services – tools for health, education, jobs and basic communication. We are looking forward to bringing free basic services to more countries soon,”
Zuckerberg had said.
The initiative was initially launched in Zambia, and six months later in partnership with RCom, the company
brought Internet.org to India. As a part of this initiative, RCom subscribers would be able to access 33 websites, including news, travel, sports, and local government sites among others for free.
While the intentions behind the initiative are noble, Facebook and Internet.org almost immediately faced a backlash from those in support of net neutrality . The backlash not only had Zuckerberg repeatedly defending his initiative , but its partners like NDTV, Cleartrip , Newshunt and Times Group withdrew support for the case.
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