By Deepa Seetharaman 

For the better part of a year, Facebook Inc. has been confronted by one question in India: Is some Internet better than none? This week, critics of that policy won.

India's telecommunications regulator on Monday banned programs that offer access to a limited set of websites and apps, including Facebook's Free Basics service.

Free Basics still operates in 37 other countries. But the decision, in the world's second-most-populous country, raises questions about Facebook's effort to expand Internet use in developing countries.

To Facebook, an abridged Internet is the most practical and far-reaching way to reach billions who now have no access. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg called the service "a bridge to the full Internet and digital quality."

Critics say otherwise. "Facebook wishes to choose what is 'best' for the end user--an erroneous supposition and one that violates the fundamental principle of openness in the Internet," said Leonard Kleinrock, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who helped develop the Internet's underlying network technology.

Free Basics relies on a compact between Facebook and local telecom operators. The operators offer free access to a limited set of Internet sites, in the hopes of ultimately converting users to paying customers.

Facebook gets more users, who in many cases come to view Facebook as the gateway to the Internet. Limiting the available sites prevents Free Basics users from consuming too much data, which would hurt the carriers.

"The program needs to be one where, ultimately, operators are going to be able to make money," said Chris Daniels, the executive leading Internet.org, Facebook's broader effort to extend Internet access, of which Free Basics is a part. "If it is a money-losing endeavor, they're going to turn it off."

That approach has defenders. Facebook's service "may be a worthy experiment" in a world where Internet access can be too expensive for some people, said Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School.

But in its ruling Monday, India's Telecom Regulatory Authority said Free Basics violated the principles of "net neutrality," the idea that Internet providers cannot favor some content over others. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission adopted rules favoring net neutrality last year. Since then, Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube has said T-Mobile US Inc. is interfering with its videos for a T-Mobile program that waives data fees.

Facebook launched Free Basics, then called the Internet.org app, in July 2014 in Zambia with telecom operator Airtel Networks Zambia PLC.

The app offered access to 13 services, including a bare-bones version of Facebook that didn't show videos, Google Search and a version of Wikipedia where users can't edit pages.

Soon after, Google dropped out of Free Basics, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person said Google worried that users would be unhappy about data charges they incurred after following the links in search results. When the service launched in India last year, Microsoft Corp.'s Bing search engine was included.

Critics in India said Free Basics lacked many popular services, including Google Search, YouTube and Facebook's own messaging service WhatsApp. They decried Free Basics as "poor Internet for poor people." Last month, hundreds showed up in New Delhi to register their concerns about the program.

The debate in India mimics one that has vexed philosophers for centuries, said Andrew Feenberg, a philosopher of technology and professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

"Which is more important: the rule or the benefit received?" Dr. Feenberg said. "It's not going to be easy to solve this problem because philosophers haven't succeeded yet and it has been hundreds of years."

Before Monday's decision, Facebook executives said they would consider changes to Free Basics, including allowing outsiders to audit how Facebook selects services.

Just how Facebook reimagines Free Basics is up in the air. Indian regulators said they would allow companies to sponsor or pay for mobile data that consumers can use at will.

Facebook has previously called that approach unsustainable. Dr. Kleinrock and others say it is the best option.

On his Facebook page Monday, Mr. Zuckerberg replied to criticism that Facebook's efforts failed to consider India's history and local entrepreneurs.

"I think you're right about focusing on following the local culture and empowering local entrepreneurs," he wrote.

He pointed to Facebook's Express Wi-Fi program, which sells cheap equipment to entrepreneurs to help them start their own businesses offering Internet service.

"We'll try to follow this model for other programs in the future," he wrote.

Alistair Barr contributed to this article.

Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 09, 2016 17:32 ET (22:32 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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