Mark Zuckerberg says the lesson he learned from India blocking his plan to launch free internet is that 'every country is different'

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the lesson he learned from India's recent ruling banning his project to bring free internet to its citizens is that "every country is different."

Zuckerberg spoke at Mobile World Congress, the annual trade event for the mobile phone industry. It was an audience filled with software developers, carriers, and hardware manufacturers.

"We recently had this ruling in India. There's no differential pricing for services. Even if for free. That's not allowed. That's disappointing for the mission we're trying to do and a major setback in India," Zuckberg said. "The main learning is that every country is different. The models that worked in one country are different in another. In India we're going to focus on different programs. There are other parts of Internet.org that we're going to focus on."

The Indian government ruled that Facebook's "Free Basics" plan was illegal, and blocked the company from launching free internet for citizens. That might sound strange, but the free version of the internet Facebook wanted to offered emphasised its own services and services offered by its partners. That upset net neutrality advocates, who wanted a free and open internet.

"We've had lots of different issues in our 12 years," Zuckerberg said. "We take the hits that we get and learn from them and try to do better."