The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) dealt a blow to Facebook's Free Basics service that offered free limited mobile Internet. TRAI had outlawed differential pricing for data packages, which forms the core of Free Basics.
Responding to the decision, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his disappointment with the decision in a Facebook post saying that "India's telecom regulator decided to restrict programs that provide free access to data."
But Zuckerberg's assertion is incorrect. The Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016, doesn't prohibit programs that provide free access to data, but only restricts those which provide free (or differentiated) access to select data.
According to the regulations, services (such as Free Basics) that only allow access to selected websites, albeit for free, violate the principle that the entire Internet should be available to everyone on equal terms.
"TSPs are prohibited from offering different tariffs based on the content, service, application or other data that a user is accessing or transmitting on the Internet. Tariff for data services cannot vary on the basis of the website/application/platform/ or type of content being accessed," the regulation says.
And it goes on to clarify that "this prohibition shall not apply to other forms of tariff differentiation that are entirely independent of content. For instance, providing limited free data that enables a user to access the entire Internet is not prohibited."
It is very clear that TRAI hasn't restricted "programs that provide free access to data" and Facebook under its Internet.org program is free to provide free access to the entire Internet.
That fact, Mark Zuckerberg appears to have chosen to ignore.
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