Facebook board member Marc Andreessen deletes 'anti-colonialism' tweet after India Free Basics ban
A tweet from tech investor and Facebook board member Marc Andreessen courted controversy after he suggested that India’s ‘anti-colonialism’ attitude was going to harm its economic progress.
As Facebook looks to breach the market with its Free Basics service, offering free internet to people in the region, the initiative hit a roadblock after Indian regulators banned the service.
Free Basics was found to breach net neutrality by the country as it only provided access to select services, such as Facebook.
In response Andreessen tweeted that the ban was morally wrong.
Denying world's poorest free partial Internet connectivity when today they have none, for ideological reasons, strikes me as morally wrong.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 10, 2016
Following that a now deleted tweet urging India to embrace its colonialism from foreign MNCs read.
A backlash followed online, and predictably the prominent Silicon Valley figure issued an apology for the comments.
I apologize for any offense caused by my earlier tweet about Indian history and politics. I admire India and the Indian people enormously. — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 10, 2016
India is an amazing country with amazing people. Indian companies and people have had profoundly positive effect on the Internet and world! — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 10, 2016
He concluded.
I now withdraw from all future discussions of Indian economics and politics, and leave them to people with more knowledge and experience! — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 10, 2016