TRAI comes down hard on Facebook, calls its Free Basics campaign 'crudely majoritarian, orchestrated
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has made public a strongly worded letter (see below) addressed to Facebook countering allegations levied by the social media giant and criticising the manner in which the company made millions of its users send emails to TRAI in support of the controversial Free Basics service.
The letter addressed to Ankhi Das, Facebook's director-public policy for India, South & Central Asia, TRAI reiterates its previous stance that the responses sent in by Facebook on behalf its users were not, in fact, responses to the four questions posed by the regulatory authority in its consultation paper on 'Differential Prices for Data Services' but merely templatised response expressing support of Free Basics.
On Facebook's act of levering its huge user base to drum up support for Free Basics, TRAI says that Facebook's "urging has the flavour of reducing this meaningful consultative exercise designed to produce informed decisions in a transparent manner into a crudely majoritarian and orchestrated opinion poll."
TRAI, in the letter, expresses apprehensions that Facebook acts, if accepted, "has dangerous ramifications for policy-making in India."
TRAI also conveys its concern about Facebook's "self-appointed spokesmanship" on behalf of its users and says that "it is noticed that you have not been authorised by your users to speak on behalf of them collectively. No disclosure in the act of sending a message to TRAI using your platform to this effect has been issued to users."
Facebook had alleged that someone at TRAI's office blocked email from its websites which people used for sharing their comments on the differential pricing issue. "It is surprising that it took over 25 days for you to inform TRAI of this," says TRAI in its response.
Facebook, has, on its part, issued a statement in response to TRAI's letter, in which it hints at been singled out and says that the company was "not aware of a similar request having been made to any of the other commenters who did not answer these specific questions."
"While we did not include all of the specific language drafted by TRAI," acknowledges Facebook, but says that it "did deliver a request for additional information and included in the draft email the exact language from the four specific questions posed in the consultation paper. More than 1.4 million people responded by submitting revised comments that addressed these questions."
TRAI is conducting an open house discussion on differential pricing for data services, a key aspect of Net neutrality, on January 21. In a notification, TRAI said "interested stakeholders are invited to participate" in open house discussion on its consultation paper on 'Differential Prices for Data Services'. The event will be held at PHD House in New Delhi.
Telecom operators have favoured differential pricing for data services while Net neutrality activists continue to oppose any differential pricing regime, saying it would amount to curbs on freedom of choice to access Internet.
Facebook's Free Basics service offers people without the Internet free access to a handful of websites through mobile phones.
The debate on Net neutrality stirred across India after Airtel decided to charge separately for Internet-based calls but withdrew it later after people protested. Internet activists and experts flayed the operator for 'Airtel Zero' service along with Facebook's Internet.org service, later renamed as 'Free Basics.'
Net neutrality implies that equal treatment be accorded to all Internet traffic and no priority be given to an entity or company based on payment to content or service providers such as telecom companies, which is seen as discriminatory.
Countries like the US, Chile, Netherlands and Brazil have already adopted Net Neutrality that doesn't allow discrimination of Internet content or charge users differently based on the content, site, or platform they consume, the debate is still raging in India.
Facebook had unleashed a
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