India's Telecom Regulatory Authority on Monday ruled in favor of Net neutrality, effectively banning Facebook's Free Basics Internet access app.
"This is a very important decision for the future of the Internet in India," said Barbara van Schewick, director of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, whose paper the TRA cited in its ruling.
The TRA decided "ISPs should not pick winners and losers online," she told the E-Commerce Times. "The Internet is a level playing field where users, not ISPs, decide what they want to do online."
"In India, given that a majority of the population are yet to be connected to the Internet, allowing service providers to define the nature of access would be (the) equivalent of letting TSPs shape the users' Internet experience," it continues, and this "can prove to be risky."
Letting TSPs charge differential rates on a case-by-case basis -- an option van Schewick's paper addresses -- "creates substantial social costs," notes the ruling.
- Date Published:02/09/2016
- Original Publication:TechNewsWorld