[governance] Update on India and Facebook's Free Basics

[Janna Anderson]

Facebook and ³Free Basics² initiative spotlighted in this TechCrunch story
that includes updates about India and Facebook responses:
http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/27/gatekeeper-or-stepping-stone/

Excerpt: "This week regulators in India, the largest nation in the program
<http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/24/facebooks-internet-org-now-available-thro
ughout-india/>, required Facebook¹s local carrier partner Reliance to
temporarily shut down Free Basics
<http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/put-facebooks-free-
basics-service-on-hold-trai-tells-reliance-communications/50291100>. That
was despite Facebook thrusting a petition in front of its users requesting
they click to send the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India an email to
³Save Free Basics In India
<http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/17/save-free-basics/>³. The TRAI will make
a final decision on whether to allow Free Basics next month.

"To drum up more support, yesterday the VP of Internet.org Chris Daniels
did a Reddit Ask Me Anything
<https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/3ya52q/vp_internetorg/> where he
denied that Facebook was becoming a gatekeeper to the Internet. And today
<http://boingboing.net/2015/12/27/facebooks-fuddy-full-page-a.html>Facebook
 ran a double full-page ad
<https://twitter.com/reifman/status/681144960364621825> in The Sunday
Times Of India asking readers to pledge support for its corporate-run
version of free Internet, spotted by Jeff Reifman
<https://twitter.com/reifman/status/681144960364621825>. The conclusion of
this battle could impact the digital fates of over 1.2 billion Indian
citizens, and set a precedent for how other nations regulate Free Basics."

Janna Anderson



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