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Free Basics: Nandan Nilekani, other tech executives call foul on Facebook's plan

Through Free Basics, Facebook proposes to provide access to certain content on the internet to its users free of cost, thereby going against the very principles of net neutrality that the country was seen going up in arms about only a few months back.

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Nandan Nilekani, Infosys co-founder, UIDAI chairman, has become the latest person to join the party against Facebook's Free Basics which proposes free internet for all. 

Through Free Basics, Facebook proposes to provide access to certain content on the internet to its users free of cost, thereby going against the very principles of net neutrality that the country was seen going up in arms about only a few months back. 

Nilekani has said that a lack of clarity of a law has created a a "a vacuum that many commercial interests are trying to fill with their own interpretation," according to a Business Standard report. 

However, he added that Facebook's agenda wasn't known, and that people are only commenting on what is out in the open and how it is against net neutrality. 

Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have been feeling the heat from Indian entrepreneurs and certain aware citizens since the company decided to get users to send an email to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in support of the Free Basics program. It was only recently that Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma called out on Facebook's attempt at offering certain content websites to users for free, calling it no different from the East India Company

This was at a time when Zuckerberg made a phone call to Sharma after writing him an email about Free Basics to get support from the latter's company, Paytm. However, Sharma had later said that he was still in support of the opposing campaign savetheinternet.org and against Free Basics. 

According to an ET report, TRAI has also recently asked Reliance Communications, Facebook's sole telecom partner to offer free basic services to its subscribers, to halt the "free" service for sometime. 

Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Nilekani not alone in the fight against Free Basics. Microsoft India chairman Bhaskar pramanik has also spoken out against Free Basics by Facebook. 

Another technology CEO in the gang is the Truecaller CEO, Alan Mamedi, who tweeted in support of net neutrality and against Free Basics. 

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