Rise up to save the Net neutrality in India
As the fight to a neutral non discriminatory open Internet just got over in the US, and FCC ruled in favor of the people, upholding the principle of Net neutrality after hearing comments sent to FCC by the Internet users. History: fight and victory
Now a similar fight is underway in India and the Indian telcos are lobbying to break the Internet as we know it.Airtel announced differential pricing plan for voip content and withdrew it after severe social media backlash. Now they have come up with Airtel zero which let access apps pay them and let users access it for free giving preferential treatment for corporations with big money. facebook’s internet.org in the name of charity let’s people to access only sites that signup with them for free. Both if gone ahead would break the the Internet as a level playing field. Telcos are crying to let them charge for services like whatsapp,viber,redphone and other instant messaging and voip apps which are used by people for free stating that they are eating their revenues even as the data usage grows.
Everything is not over yet, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has released a consultation paper(link) on 27th March asking for the public to comment on a set of 20 questions and send them to email id listed on page2 of the paper with a tight deadline of 24th April.
Internet users all over India has responded and websites have been set up http://www.netneutrality.in/ and https://www.savetheinternet.in/ to help people understand the issue and respond to TRAI with a simple mouse click.
Also several videos have put up explaining the issue with some going viral. Here is a simple video that have been put up by the people defending net neutrality that explains this issue in simple terms
What can you do to save the Internet :
If you are in India respond to TRAI by sending an email to them, write to your MP and let more people know about this issue. Even if you are not in India you can share about this and let your friends in India know about this issue. For more ways to help please look at http://www.netneutrality.in/support/
Your voice makes a difference, here is a list of developments so far,
Flipkart pulls out of Airtel Zero: http://www.medianama.com/2015/04/223-flipkart-pulls-out-of-airtel-zero-net-neutrality-in-india-gets-a-boost/
Several Internet companies walk out of facebook’s internet.org: http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/04/15/internetorg-withdrawal_n_7071532.html?utm_hp_ref=india
Politicians and celebrities voice their support for Net neutrality: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-04-14/news/61142375_1_net-neutrality-sachin-bansal-flipkart