In his first townhall question and answer session in India, Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive, Facebook, said here the company is working on an open framework and continues to lobby for net neutrality.

But, at the same time, he also said Facebook continues to push for net access, which will be also good for India, where a lot of people through a free Internet programme, can get information on jobs, education, and health information.

“We do a lot to support (net neutrality) in terms of regulations, we are working on building an open framework. We lobby for it (net neutrality) across the world but at the same time, we continue to push for access,” he said.

The company's Internet.org platform for free Internet, which was recently rebranded as Free Basics, has been run down by telecom operators and Internet activists, who say it violates the principle of net neutrality.

However, Zuckerberg said ‘availability, affordability and awareness’ are important for connecting people.

“You cannot provide the whole Internet for free and we are not bringing a filter to any content that goes in it (in Free Basics). We need to get people on to the Internet,” he said, adding that operators are spending billions of dollars on infrastructure and Facebook supports them.

But, in the meantime, regulations are also important and just like the US had come out with regulations on Net neutrality early this year, Facebook was also waiting for other countries to follow suit and India is an important country for its operations and would abide by the country’s regulations.

“India is the world’s largest democracy and we have 130 million users here. It’s a mission for us to help provide access to Internet,” he added.

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