Several companies have already announced their withdrawal

Apr 17, 2015 07:03 GMT  ·  By

It has been reported that multiple Indian companies are trying to back out of Facebook’s Internet.org initiative due to net neutrality issues.

A project meant to help people around the world gain Internet access, Mark Zuckerberg’s Internet.org is now in the spotlight for having allegedly infringed several net neutrality rules.

At the beginning of the year, Facebook announced that they had managed to take one step forward in their attempt to connect everyone to the Internet, and that they had finally rolled out their services to millions of people in India.

However, it seems that a group of Indian Internet companies have made the decision to pull out of the service.

Cleartrip, NewsHunt, NDTV and the Times Group have publicly announced that they will be withdrawing some or all of their sites from Internet.org because they don’t see the initiative as being in accordance with the principles imposed by net neutrality.

The companies claim that Internet.org is promoting some sites more than others. Furthermore, they state that the service, which is supposed to make it easier for people to gain Internet access, has done nothing but create “conflict of interests,” as Huffington Post reveals.

Internet.org goes against the companies' fundamentals

Apparently, Indian companies have realized that maybe it was not such a good idea to allow Facebook to control the Internet by having the power to decide who can access it and what they can access.

They feel that the project is in fact undermining the idea of Internet freedom, violating the rule that the Internet is equal for everyone, with no discrimination.

Many Web users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the program, claiming that it privileges certain sites and apps, while the rest of the Internet access requires payment. They are against the selective offering of Internet access, as it clearly breaches the rules.

During the Q&A session that took place a few days ago, Mark Zuckerberg was asked what he thought about the conflict, to which he replied the following: “For people who are not on the internet, though, having some connectivity and some ability to share is always much better than having no ability to connect and share at all. That’s why programs like Internet.org are essential and can coexist with net neutrality regulations.”

However, this did not manage to persuade Indian companies to continue supporting the program.