Facebook asks US-based users to support Free Basics in India; says it was an 'accident'

Some can be really tenacious and Facebook sure makes it to the list! Facebook continues to push its ‘Free Basics’ to India. Now, with a month left for public hearing on net neutrality, Facebook is trying every trick in the box to get support for its Free Basic service, which is nothing but ‘Internet.org’ or death of freedom of  Internet, as some of us would like to call it. After launching its campaign in India last week, it now claims to have ‘accidentally’ asked users from the US to support Free basics as well. This came to light when several users took to Twitter to convey that they are not in India and are being asked to support the ‘cause’. Facebook then issued a statement to Re/code saying, “We accidentally turned on this notification for some people outside India this evening for a short period of time - it’s been on for English-speakers in India for several days now.” India is an important ‘market’ for Facebook and there are reasons why it wants to bring billions of people online. To achieve this, the company is ‘investing’ a huge amount on the campaign with SMSes in Hindi, front-page ads, missed call campaigns and so on. The campaign ‘Act Now to Save Free Basics in India’ asks users to send a message on their behalf to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India with a subject line that reads “I support Free Basics in India.” Many Free Internet activists took to Twitter opposing the move, and this isn’t the first time. Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma attacked Facebook’s campaign for its Free Basics internet access programme. https://twitter.com/vijayshekhar/status/679147401433759744 Net neutrality has been a heated topic for months now. Triggered by Airtel’s zero platform that faced public outcry and compelled its partner Flipkart to walk out of the partnership, Facebook has been facing criticism and many companies like NDTV and Cleartrip decided to part ways with it too. While Airtel clearly called it a marketing platform, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly called his pet project Internet.org a way to help bring the world (especially emerging markets with remote areas without Internet access) online. Besides India, Internet.org has also been launched in other emerging countries like Colombia, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana. Well, the least he could do is stop calling it a noble cause as its simply shrewd business . After facing criticism in India, the company rebranded Internet.org to Free Basics. It’s like packaging old wine in a new bottle and is against net neutrality in India.