MUMBAI: Public outcry over net neutrality seems to be doing the trick. A day after e-commerce company Flipkart opted out of Airtel Zero platform, online travel agent Cleartrip has pulled out of Facebook’s Internet.org initiative that offers free Internet usage to users on select services.
“We believe that the Internet is a great leveller and that its freedom is critical for innovation. Cleartrip is and always will be a fully committed supporter of net neutrality,” Cleartrip said in a statement.
Clarifying its stance, the company said that it had associated with the Internet.org initiative to make Internet accessible to more people. It also made it clear that there was no revenue arrangement between the parties.
“A few weeks back, Facebook reached out and asked us to participate in the Internet.org initiative with the intention of helping us deliver one of our most affordable products to the more underserved parts of the country,” Cleartrip said in a statement.
“There was no revenue arrangement between us and Internet.org or any of its participants — we were neither paid anything, nor did we pay anything to participate.
Additionally we don’t make any money out of that product. Since there was absolutely zero money changing hands, we genuinely believed we were contributing to a social cause.”
However, the raging debate over net neutrality and Internet freedom made the company rethink as it didn’t want to influence customer decision-making by forcing options on them.
Read more at:
http://www.televisionpost.com/technology/net-neutrality-cleartrip-pulls-out-of-facebooks-internet-org/
“We believe that the Internet is a great leveller and that its freedom is critical for innovation. Cleartrip is and always will be a fully committed supporter of net neutrality,” Cleartrip said in a statement.
Clarifying its stance, the company said that it had associated with the Internet.org initiative to make Internet accessible to more people. It also made it clear that there was no revenue arrangement between the parties.
“A few weeks back, Facebook reached out and asked us to participate in the Internet.org initiative with the intention of helping us deliver one of our most affordable products to the more underserved parts of the country,” Cleartrip said in a statement.
“There was no revenue arrangement between us and Internet.org or any of its participants — we were neither paid anything, nor did we pay anything to participate.
Additionally we don’t make any money out of that product. Since there was absolutely zero money changing hands, we genuinely believed we were contributing to a social cause.”
However, the raging debate over net neutrality and Internet freedom made the company rethink as it didn’t want to influence customer decision-making by forcing options on them.
Read more at:
http://www.televisionpost.com/technology/net-neutrality-cleartrip-pulls-out-of-facebooks-internet-org/
