News Digest

Here’s to the next billion: Zuckerberg takes connectivity message to India

Facebook chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday he believes India will be crucial to getting “the next billion online” and helping to alleviate poverty. Speaking to about 900 students at New Delhi’s Indian Institute of Technology, Zuckerberg said broadening Internet access was vital to economic development in a country where a billion people are still not online. "If you really have a mission of connecting every person in the world you can’t do that without connecting people in India,“ Zuckerberg, dressed in a grey T-shirt and dark jeans, told the audience.

We have a moral responsibility to look out for people who do not have the Internet… and make sure the rules don’t get twisted to hurt people who don’t have a voice.

Mark Zuckerberg

The 31-year-old billionaire gave lighthearted answers to questions including "Why do I get so many requests for (online game) Candy Crush?” and “If you could have a supernatural power what would you wish for?" But he also vigorously defended Facebook’s controversial Internet.org project, which provides free access to the Internet, mainly in poor rural communities, in 24 countries including India. Critics of Internet.org say it violates net neutrality – the principle that companies providing Internet access should not favour some sites or restrict access to others. To illustrate his point, Facebook has introduced ‘2G Tuesdays’, an internal program to give its employees a sense of the glacial Internet connections in developing countries.