Delhi CM Kejriwal joins chorus for ‘free’ internet

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has joined the chorus on the social media insisting that the government must ensure internet neutrality.

Networking sites continue to be been flooded with posts on net neutrality, demanding that service providers treat all data online equally and not discriminate or charge differently based on user, content, site, platform, or application.

The debate is international, but it has become an issue in India over the last month or so, after the country's largest operator Bharti Airtel in December announced plans to start charging customers for VoIP services such as Skype and Viber.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India subsequently issued a consultation paper inviting user comments on the subject. In reply, over 1 lakh emails were sent to the authority through the website savetheinternet.in.

Free the net
People from all sections of society, including politicians, corporate leaders and actors, have come out in support of the campaign.

Topics such as #SavetheInternet, #Netneutrality have been trending on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The government has formed a six-member committee comprising Telecom Ministry officials to examine the issue. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who has in the past backed net neutrality, said on Monday that the panel would be submitting its report by the second week of May.

He said Internet was one of the finest creations of the human mind and it was the property of the entire human race and not of any country or society.

''Internet to become entirely global should have a link to local and when we talk of digital inclusion it must be available to the underprivileged and [those] on the margins,'' Prasad has said in recent weeks. (See: TRAI issues consultation paper on net telephony services)