FB CEO: We Support Net Neutrality (w/ Zero Rating)

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg expressed his views on the Net Neutrality debate in India (see "India Planned Net Neutrality Laws" - here and "Google India: "strong protest" Against Including Zero Rating in Net Neutrality" - here). Facebook is promoting its  intewrnet.org initiative to allow affordable access to developing countries around the world (see "Update to Internet.org Free Basic Services - here).

Press Trust of India reports that ".. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg [pictured] on Wednesday said his company is committed to net neutrality but supported zero-rating plans which have been criticised by many as violative of the principles of free Internet

When asked if Facebook supports net neutrality, Zuckerberg said: "Absolutely. Net neutrality is important principle. We do a lot to support both in terms of regulation and in our own work building an open platform that any developer can build something for regardless of who they are if they follow the basic rules ..  Internet.org and Facebook are 100 per cent supportive of net neutrality, we lobby for it across the world, we build an open platform with no filtering but at the same time we also need to make sure that we continue to push for access," Zuckerberg said

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 (previously known as Internet.org) so that any developer who can give low bandwidth services for free can be zero-rated

On zero-rating plans of telecom firms like Bharti Airtel [see "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here], Zuckerberg said: "But to those who advocate against zero- rating I say look at a student who wants free access to the Internet for her studies

See "Zuckerberg affirms net neutrality but backs zero-rating plans" - here.