Net Neutrality: Cleartrip pulls out of Facebook, Reliance Communications tie-up Internet.org
With voices for net neutrality getting louder by the day, online travel portal Cleartrip on Wednesday pulled out of Internet.org, a tie-up between Facebook and Reliance Communications (RCom) in India, reports fe Bureau in New Delhi.
Although Facebook denies Internet.org is an Airtel Zero type platform since it does not receive any fees, the service provides free access to stripped-down versions of various sites which have tied up with it.
The development comes a day after Flipkart, pressured by the rising chorus in favour of net neutrality, decided not to join Airtel Zero.
“The recent debate around net neutrality gave us pause to rethink our approach to Internet.org and the idea of large corporations getting involved with picking and choosing who gets access to what and how fast. What started off with providing a simple search service has us now concerned with influencing customer decision-making by forcing options on them, something that is against our core DNA,”Subramanya Sharma, CMO, Cleartrip, wrote on the company’s official blog.
Officials of Facebook as well as Rcom clarified that Internet.org was different from Airtel Zero in the sense that the listed sites do not pay them to come on to the platform; Facebook too does not pay for data consumed by its subscribers in free surfing of the listed sites. Similarly, RCom does not pay Facebook for partnering it in the initiative in India.
There are around 38 sites listed on Internet.org which the subscribers of RCom can access free of any data charge.
OTHERS ON INTERNET.ORG
Aaj Tak
amarujala.com
BBC News
Bing Search
Daily Bhaskar
Dictionary.com
ESPN Cricinfo
Facebook
Facts for Life
Girl Effect
HungamaPlay
IBNLive
iLearn
India Today
Internet Basics
Jagran
Maalai Malar
Maharashtra Times
Malaria No More
manoramanews.com
Messenger
NDTV
Newshunt
OLX
Reliance Astrology
Reuters Market Lite
Times of India
TimesJobs
Translator
Wikipedia
wikiHow
(List not exhaustive)
