India may have binned Facebook's freebies on net neutrality grounds

Facebook's “Free Basics” program, which sees its Indian telecoms partner Reliance Communications offer free internet access to a select group of sites, has reportedly earned the ire of India's telecoms regulator. The Times of India reports that India's Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) has asked Reliance to pause provision …

[Your alien overlord - fear me]

India should have banned Facebook (end of sentence) !!!

[Shadow Systems]

Hear Hear!

Ban FaceBook, Twitter, and every other "Social Media" site out there, ESPECIALLY the ones that can't even spell the word(s) that make up their own service without dropping a lettr (*cough*) to do it in some cool & hip new marketing ploy.

Save yourself bandwidth that can be better used on much more important, productive, & gratifying endeavors... like streaming 4K cat porn videos from Youtube.

/runs away ducking & dodging the screams, slings, & arrows of cat porn lovers everywhere...

[frank ly]

"Facebook initially selected participants in Free Basics ..."

What a mistake to make! They should have carefully consulted the head of the TRAI and then a few high ranking government ministers. That would have given them some carefully chosen Indian owned webservices to include in Free Basics.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha, get wrecked Zuckerburg, and take your silicon valley poisoned chalice with you.

[Graham Marsden]

Let me fix that for you...

"Every time Zuck is able to put the Internet's resources to work collecting people's information it's a win for him and his advertisers..."

[CPU]

I see a large business flaw in FB's Free Basics idea: If the Z-man wants to give free Facebook to the poor (what a nice man), all he is doing is gathering eyeballs for his Ads. But if those eyeballs are so poor they NEED free basics, then it doesn't make for a great target Market for the Ads. And why would anyone pay for an Ad, only to find that people eyeballing it can't afford the product\ service?