Flipkart pulls out Airtel Zero, says it’s pro ‘Net Neutrality’

Apr 14, 2015, 15:24 IST

Ever since Airtel has announced its Zero programme, the company has been facing a lot of criticism on social media. However, when the eCommerce site Flipkart decided to be a part of the Airtel Zero initiative, the frenzy reached a new height.

People resorted to uninstalling the Flipkart app on their mobile and save the Internet hashtag started trending on Twitter. On April 9, Sachin Bansal, Flipkart CEO took to Twitter and shared that, "I'm for #NetNeutrality. I spend time/money helping startups in India. Will never support things which suffocate innovation."

He was also seen agreeing to the fact that if Net Neutrality was such a big deal, then why there was no voices raised when Facebook collaborated with Reliance for Internet.org.

However, it looks like now the company has decided to succumb to the social pressure. Flipkart has issued a press statement citing that it has backed off from Airtel's zero-rating plans. It has also mentioned that it is committed to the cause of 'net neutrality' in India and will continue to be a part of the same.

Flipkart has also said that it will be internally discussing over the next few days, the details of actions they will take to support the cause. Now this does look like a happy ending to the tale.

At this point, it will also be fair to mention that as per a report on Economic Times, TRAI has received over more than 1.5 lakh e-mail petitions over the weekend, urging it to protect network neutrality in the country.

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