At his first townhall event in India, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said
that the company is committed to net neutrality, but lent his support
for zero-rating plans, which violate the principles of free internet.
When asked if Facebook supports net neutrality, Zuckerberg said, "Absolutely. We do a lot to support net neutrality. In terms of regulation, countries are figuring out what rules they want and we are supportive of that."
He said providing free internet to everyone in the world is expensive and telecom operators spend billions each year bringing internet to users. "What we are really trying to do is to use Free Basics so that any developer who can give low bandwidth services for free can be zero-rated. That has been powerful, and provides a neutral platform without any filters."
If a telecom operator, however, tries to press its own services on the users and it hurts people, then we need net neutrality, Zuckerberg said.
Zero-rating is the concept of providing users access to only a pre-approved set of websites, not the full internet. Facebook's Internet.org, now renamed as Free Basics, operates on the same principle.
About zero-rating, Zuckerberg said, "But to those who advocate against zero-rating: I look at a student who wants free access to the internet for her studies, who gets hurt by that? Around the world, all the regulations are honouring this principle, prioritizing zero-rating is necessary to connect everyone to the internet. Facebook and Internet.org support net neutrality 100%, but we also need to push for access."
He rounded off the subject with, "We have a moral responsibility to look out for those who do not have access to the internet."
When asked if Facebook supports net neutrality, Zuckerberg said, "Absolutely. We do a lot to support net neutrality. In terms of regulation, countries are figuring out what rules they want and we are supportive of that."
He said providing free internet to everyone in the world is expensive and telecom operators spend billions each year bringing internet to users. "What we are really trying to do is to use Free Basics so that any developer who can give low bandwidth services for free can be zero-rated. That has been powerful, and provides a neutral platform without any filters."
If a telecom operator, however, tries to press its own services on the users and it hurts people, then we need net neutrality, Zuckerberg said.
Zero-rating is the concept of providing users access to only a pre-approved set of websites, not the full internet. Facebook's Internet.org, now renamed as Free Basics, operates on the same principle.
About zero-rating, Zuckerberg said, "But to those who advocate against zero-rating: I look at a student who wants free access to the internet for her studies, who gets hurt by that? Around the world, all the regulations are honouring this principle, prioritizing zero-rating is necessary to connect everyone to the internet. Facebook and Internet.org support net neutrality 100%, but we also need to push for access."
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He rounded off the subject with, "We have a moral responsibility to look out for those who do not have access to the internet."
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