SAN FRANCISCO -- In a setback for Facebook, Indian regulators have banned free mobile data programs that favor some Internet services over others.
The regulations, issued Monday after months of public debate over how to extend the Internet to India's poorest citizens, effectively block Facebook's Free Basics program in India, a signature project of Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg.
Free Basics offers mobile users in three dozen countries free access to a text-only version of the Facebook social network as well as to certain news, health, job and other services. Facebook bills the program as a way to introduce the poor and the technologically unskilled to the potential of the Internet.
In India, where Facebook already has at least 132 million users, the company began offering Free Basics last year through Reliance Communications, a local mobile phone carrier.
But the program quickly became the target of critics who said that it was an attempt to steer unsophisticated new Internet users to Facebook and other services that were working with the company. They argued that Free Basics and other "zero rating" programs violated the concept of net neutrality, which says that Internet providers should provide equal access to all Web content.
The issue has been debated in other countries, including the United States, where the Federal Communications Commission is studying whether zero-rated services comply with its own net neutrality rules.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in its policy document that mobile phone companies should not be allowed to "shape the users' Internet experience" by providing free access only to certain services.
Since most Indians are not yet online, the agency noted, such programs have great power to shape a newcomer's whole view of the Internet.
"This can prove to be risky in the medium to long term as the knowledge and outlook of those users would be shaped only by the information made available through those select offerings," the agency wrote.
Zuckerberg personally lobbied against the new rules, including writing an opinion piece in The Times of India. Facebook spent millions of dollars on advertising to promote its position and ran special banners in the news feeds of Indian users urging them to petition the government to allow Free Basics.
In a statement Monday, Facebook said, "Our goal with Free Basics is to bring more people online with an open, nonexclusive and free platform. While disappointed with the outcome, we will continue our efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the Internet and the opportunities it brings."
Facebook is working on other projects to expand Internet access in India, including a program to bring cheap Wi-Fi to rural villages.
The regulators said India's mobile phone companies could still expand Internet access through other means.
"Providing limited free data that enables a user to access the entire Internet is not prohibited," they wrote.
Business on 02/09/2016