Facebook is offering in India a free service of Internet, with access to a limited number of websites including its own. It has found resistance, prompting company founder Mark Zuckerberg to lobby hard for it, comparing it to libraries and hospitals. Critics oppose it because it challenges net neutrality, the principle that Internet service providers should give access to all legal content and applications on an equal basis, without favoring some sites and blocking others. Zuckerberg is hardly driven by altruism alone: India is home to the largest number of Facebook users outside the U.S. Yet he may have a point: it’s better some access to Internet than none at all, especially for users who cannot afford carrier fees, no matter how democratic the service provided is.
