Facebook Takes A Step Back After Marc Andreessen's Statement On Giving India Free Internet Basic Services
One of Facebook's high profile board members and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has just added more weight to resentment held by techies opposed to the social network's influential global spread with his unsavory India comment amid a recent decision by India's regulators to ban Mark Zuckerberg's signature Free Basic Program in the subcontinent.
While overtly vocal in supporting Facebook's global cause of giving free mobile internet access to people through its lightweight Free Basics Program, Andreessen's twitter statement did not offer much help to the company's legal woes in India. Instead, the statement did much to stiffen a recalcitrant stance against the social media giant.
"Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?" Andreessen's twitter statement reads as quoted by the New York Times which consequently produced a social media firestorm that created more problems than it solves.
The company moved in quickly to control the situation strongly denouncing Andreessen's statement. Zuckerberg also released his personal statement rejecting the controversial "anti-colonialism" tweet.
"I found the comments deeply upsetting. They do not represent the way Facebook or I think at all," remarked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as quoted saying by BBC News.
But many Indian and non-Indian critics are vehemently opposed to what they viewed as plain "colonialist overtones" of Facebook's recent attempts of tipping global consumers' perception to its favor despite its so-called intention to widen access to internet which the company views as a "fundamental human right".
"I see the project as both colonialist and deceptive. It tries to solve a problem it doesn't understand, but it doesn't need to understand the problem because it already knows the solution. The solution conveniently helps lock in Facebook as the dominant platform for the future," said MIT Center for Civil Media director Ethan Zuckerman as stated in a report by The Atlantic.
