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Net Neutrality: Flipkart pulls out of Airtel deal

by IBNS 14 Apr 2015, 11:40 am

Bangalore, Apr 14 (IBNS) Amid the ongoing debate on the issue of net neutrality in India and a backlash of internet users, country's e-commerce marketplace Flipkart on Tuesday said it will be walking away from the ongoing discussions with telecom giant Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero.

"We at Flipkart have always strongly believed in the concept of net neutrality, for we exist because of the Internet. Over the past few days, there has been a great amount of debate, both internally and externally, on the topic of zero rating, and we have a deeper understanding of the implications," Flipkart said in a statement.

"We will be walking away from the ongoing discussions with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero," it said.

The e-commerce marketplace further said: "We will be committing ourselves to the larger cause of Net Neutrality in India. We will be internally discussing over the next few days, the details of actions we will take to support the cause."

Flipkart said it will be working towards ensuring that the spirit of net neutrality is upheld and applied equally to all companies in India irrespective of the size or the service being offered.

Debate over the issue of net neutrality gained momentum in past few days after standup comedy group All India Bakchod (AIB) pulled up the matter over their new video where they are urging people to 'Save The Internet'.

Posting the video, AIB wrote on their official Facebook page: "The new AIB video is out. This time, we want you to ‪#‎SaveTheInternet‬. Share this video and spread the message to everyone you know who uses the Internet. Please, log onto www.savetheinternet.in."

The video is dealing over the issue of net neutrality.

According to netneutrality.in, the net neutrality is 'the idea that internet service providers give their customers equal access to all lawful websites and services on the internet, without giving priority to any website over another'.