Here's why Facebook's Internet.org is crumbling in India

A group of Internet companies have withdrawn support from Internet.org, the buzzy Facebook-backed service that aims to bring people in developing countries online, following a backlash in India over net neutrality.

Businesses such as travel website Cleartrip, news channel New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) and the Times Group, a media company that owns Times of India, all yanked content from Internet.org in India, where they offered some of their content for free.

The move comes after a week or so of furious debate in the country over net neutrality, which basically maintains that all Internet traffic must be treated fairly and indiscriminately. Although net neutrality proved a hot-button issue when Internet.org first launched last October in India, the issue came to a head when Airtel, India's largest telecomm company, drew fire from activists over its new Airtel Zero platform, which lets users access select mobile apps for free. (App makers covered the fees instead.)

Net neutrality activists launched an online grassroots campaign, including a massive letter-writing campaign to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, pressuring Flipkart — considered the Amazon of India — to pull out of Airtel Zero.

The brouhaha quickly raised public concern around Internet.org, as well, which partners with Reliance Communications to bring free access to more than 35 services in India, including versions of Facebook, BBC News, Wikipedia and the job-search site Babajob. The list of partners also included NDTV and Cleartrip until they walked out yesterday.

"The recent debate around net neutrality gave us pause to rethink our approach to Internet.org and the idea of large corporations getting involved with picking and choosing who gets access to what and how fast," Subramanya Sharma, Cleartrip's chief marketing officer, wrote in a companyblog post on Wednesday.

NDTV co-founder Prannoy Roy put it more simply:

Although Facebook says Internet.org has helped more than 7 million people across six countries so far — Columbia, India, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana — critics argue that Internet.org is basically set up to prioritize content from partner businesses, who pay telecom companies such as Reliance for data charges and fees. That effectively defies net neutrality, those same critics say.

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