Net penetration

Mark Zuckerberg’s repackaging of a differential access to Internet traffic as “zero rating”, and his portrayal of himself as a ‘messiah’ of the Internet-deprived, looks ingenious (“ >‘Zero Rating’ will enhance Net access: Zuckerberg ,” Oct.29). However, Free Basics will not be a charitable initiative. The data made accessible will neither be exhaustive nor representative — this in itself will violate Net neutrality. This, coupled with the possibility of the initiative turning monopolistic, will prove to be more a threat to the future of the Net than a solution. Can the nation imagine a generation that has been educated and ‘empowered’ by a company running solely with commercial interests? The government should take to completing the National Optical Fibre Network on a war footing to avoid the future of our collective intellect being mortgaged to what looks like just another tool of ‘Capitalism 2.0’.

Devroop Mitra,

Kolkata