New Delhi: Following a huge backlash on social media over its decision to partner with Airtel for Airtel Zero, e-commerce giant Flipkart has now pulled out of the program. The decision from Flipkart comes in the wake of growing protests against net neutrality abuse.
Flipkart, in an emailed statement, said, "We will be walking away from the ongoing discussions with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero. We will be committing ourselves to the larger cause of net neutrality in India."
Launched last week, Airtel Zero has drawn ire from users and experts across the country for violating the principles of net neutrality as the platform offers access to some apps and is seen as not being equal to all.
Airtel Zero is an open-marketing platform that allows customers to access a variety of mobile applications for free, with the data charges being paid by the companies owning the application.
Here's the full e-mailed statement from Flipkart:
"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. Based on this, we have decided on the following:
- We will be walking away from the ongoing discussions with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero.
- 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.
- We 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 and there is absolutely no discrimination whatsoever."
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