Zee Media Bureau/Shruti Saxena
New Delhi: In the last few days, the topic of 'Net Neutrality' has been doing rounds on various Internet portals. As India raises its voice to ensure equal Internet access for all, online retailer Flipkart has pulled out of its partnership with Airtel Zero platform following backlash against the firm on social media.
Last week, the e-commerce major drew a lot of ire when it announced its partnership with Airtel Zero, an open-marketing platform that allows customers to access a variety of mobile applications for free, with the data charges being paid by the applications.
Flipkart, in an official statement, said:
“We at Flipkart have always strongly believed in the concept of Net Neutrality, for we exist because of the Internet. Over the past few days, there has been a great amount of debate, both internally and externally, on the topic of zero rating, and we have a deeper understanding of the implications. Based on this, we have decided on the following:
We will be walking away from the ongoing discussions with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero.
We will be committing ourselves to the larger cause of Net Neutrality in India. We will be internally discussing over the next few days, the details of actions we will take to support the cause.
We will be working towards ensuring that the spirit of net neutrality is upheld and applied equally to all companies in India irrespective of the size or the service being offered and there is absolutely no discrimination whatsoever”.
The company changed its stance after users started giving its apps 1-star ratings.
Net Neutrality implies equal treatment to all Internet traffic and any priority given to an application or company on payment basis is seen as violating the concept.
Over one lakh netizens have already written to telecom regulator TRAI in support of Net Neutrality in the country.
Social networks like Twitter and Facebook have been buzzing with people campaigning that policy makers should not allow telecom companies to charge extra fees for Internet services or provide preferential access to certain apps.
