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Here’s How the Indian Internet Is Fighting Back against Free Basics

Here’s How the Indian Internet Is Fighting Back against Free Basics

The Indian Internet has come together to support net neutrality and oppose Facebook's Free Basics initiative — which many claim is against the core principles of the Internet. Here's how they're banding together: elite and anonymous, across the shimmering data-streams of the electronic online.

The Free Basics debate is going strong in India. With Facebook pushing hard — full-page ads and Mark Zuckerberg’s editorials in Indian papers — Internet users are pushing back equally as hard.

Here are some of the ways in which Indians are fighting for their right to a free and fair Internet:

1. Speaking out on Twitter:

2. Parodying Facebook’s Free Basics ads:

View post on imgur.com

3. Sending urgent petitions to the TRAI:

IIT and IISc faculty have already sent a signed petition to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Now the CEOs of nine Indian startups — including Zomato and PayTM — have also sent a petition to the TRAI t prevent indian telecom operators “from acting as gate-keepers offering restricted Internet services instead of the Open Internet.” 

free basics

Image for representation only. Source: Flickr

4. Rebutting the Free Basics proposals through blog posts:

You can read Mahesh Murthy’s spirited argument against Free Basics here. He has also defended Indians’ right to a free a fair Internet on TV news debates.

5. Running Save The Internet ads on TV:

free basics

Source: Reddit

PayTM has been running SaveTheInternet advertisements on Tata Sky and Dish TV.

Featured image source: Twitter

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