Mark Zuckerberg has fired back at critics of Facebook's controversial internet.org initiative saying the program does not violate any fairness principles.
The service began its life as internet.org, a stripped down mobile app meant to deliver basic internet services to developing countries. The application offers free versions of commonly used sites like Wikipedia and Messenger; but detractors have pointed out that it favors Facebook aligned properties over others.
This selective pushing of certain apps and websites was seen by some as a violation of net neutrality principles and lead the company to rebrand the service as 'free basics.'
Back in May, the creator of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee, echoed this very argument telling The Guardian:
"In the particular case of somebody who's offering ... something which is branded internet, it's not internet, then you just say no. No it isn't free, no it isn't in the public domain, there are other ways of reducing the price of internet connectivity and giving something ... [only] giving people data connectivity to part of the network deliberately, I think is a step backwards."
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Zuckerberg junked this claims saying net-neutrality principles should be considered in matters of pricing only. Here are excerpts of his conversation courtesy of The Wall Street Journal:
If an operator wants to advantage their own video program and charge more for Netflix then that is bad," Said Zuckerberg to those in attendance. "if you're a student in India and you're getting access to some basic tools to do your homework for free and you can learn some more, it's really hard to see how that is hurting anyone."
"If you ask people in the developing world, Facebook is the number one reason why a lot of people get access to the Internet," he said. "Staying in touch with people is the most fundamental thing that people do. So it's not a surprise that after being able to call people and text people, the next thing they want to do is keep in touch with everyone they care about at once."
Zuckerberg's program does not sit well with.
