Facebook's Basic Services Prohibited In India

Mark Zuckergberg's ambitious plan to connect the world with Facebook's Free Basics Program is facing a setback after getting blocked by India's telecom regulator.

But critics say that Zuckerberg's flagship project of offering universal mobile connectivity to India's poorest through lightweight versions of Facebook and other websites provides preferential treatment to some internet-based services over others.

After months of intense public debate in a country where Facebook already has 132 million users, the government has found Free Basics violating net neutrality and subsequently ordered its stoppage.

"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 official statement from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reads as quoted by the New York Times.

However, in an op-ed written by the Facebook CEO himself which was featured in The Times of India, Zuckerberg was puzzled by incessant debates over objectives of his signature Free Basics Program for the poor.

"Instead of wanting to give people access to some basic internet services for free, critics of the program continue to spread false claims - even if that means leaving behind a billion people. Who could possibly be against this?" wrote Zuckerberg as stated in a report by The Verge.

Currently, there are 300 million Indians who have access to mobile internet but still has a billion more who are not connected to the internet. In 2013, Zuckerberg launched Free Basics in partnership with a number of technology firms to make internet more accessible to 4 billion people as mentioned in an article featured in The Washington Post.