The ‘Net neutrality’ campaign got a major boost on Tuesday with a growing outrage forcing e-commerce giant Flipkart walk out of ‘Airtel Zero’ — one of the services that is seen as sabotaging equal internet access for all — even as the telecom giant continued to defend its stand.

Keeping up the pressure on the Government and regulators, the netizens shot off more than three lakh petitions to TRAI against “discriminatory services” from the telecom and Internet firms, while the Opposition party Congress sought to make it a political issue and warned of protests if “freedom of choice of Internet users was compromised”.

On Twitter and other internet platforms, support for ‘keeping Internet free’ continued to pour in from politicians, businessmen, film actors and others. Those who expressed their support include Omar Abdullah, Digvijay Singh and Ayushman Khurana, joining the likes of Arvind Kejriwal, Aditya Thackeray and Shah Rukh Khan.

Dairy major Amul, known for its advertisements based on topical issues, also talked about attempts to ‘interfere’ in the Internet access in its latest ad campaign, while topics like ‘NetNeutralityInIndia’ and ‘SaveTheInternet’ continued to trend big time on Twitter. Net neutrality calls for equal treatment to all Internet traffic while any priority given to an application or company on payment basis is seen as violating the concept.

Switching sides to support ‘Net neutrality’, Flipkart said it has decided to “walk away” from its proposed tie-up with Airtel, which defended its position saying it was offering services to customers “on a completely non-discriminatory basis”. Airtel, on its part, also said it fully supports ‘Net neutrality’.

Incidentally, Flipkart is the first major company globally to walk out of such platforms. “We will be walking away from the ongoing discussions with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero,” Flipkart said, taking an entirely opposite stand from the one taken a few days back when its co-founder Sachin Bansal had openly supported ‘Airtel Zero’.

Bansal on Tuesday said that Flipkart has “always unequivocally supported net neutrality and will continue to do so”. “We did look into the zero rating concept and on one hand we felt that being able to make free Internet available could be useful but after looking in deeper we realised that net neutrality can get compromised in the future which we are not supportive of it at all,” he added.

launched last week, Airtel Zero is an open-marketing platform that allows customers to access certain mobile applications for free with charges being borne by app makers.

Airtel Zero, as also similar services launched by Reliance Communications and Facebook, among others, have come under attack with critics terming them as attempts to restrict ‘free’ Internet access to select platforms and against the ‘net neutrality’ regime.

Bansal had earlier tweeted in defence of Airtel Zero, saying “When foreign companies do it in India - Innovation. Indians do it - Violation. #NetNeutralityDiscriminationIJ”

This resulted in Flipkart drawing a lot of flak online with many users even deleting the app from their phones to show support for net neutrality. A Government-appointed panel is looking into these concerns and is likely to submit its report next month, while the matter is being separately studied by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

TRAI is being bombarded with e-mails in response to it soliciting public opinion on whether telecom firms, who are also the nation’s biggest internet service providers, can be allowed to charge different rates for different uses of internet data like email, internet browsing and use of apps like Whatsapp, Viber and Sky.

In an unparalleled campaign where internet users have sent over 3 lakh emails in the past three days asking TRAI to safeguard internet neutrality, as many saw Airtel Zero as creating discrimination within content.

Net neutrality mandates that all data must be treated equally. Free Internet advocates and start-ups see the move as a violation of net neutrality and one that could even “lead to monopolisation by a few and squeezing out of small companies”.

On political front, the Congress asked the Government to immediately issue policy directions to TRAI to scrap the controversial consultation paper in the matter. Demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Government unequivocally take a stand in favour of ‘net neutrality’, Congress spokesman Ajay Maken said the committee set up by the Telecom Ministry on the issue be disbanded.

Stating that India was home to 24.31 crore Internet users, of which 17.30 crore are mobile Internet users, the Congress said the party will take to street protests if the Government did not take remedial action. Maken accused the Government of following a latent policy of ‘3S -- Stifle, Subjugate and Stymie’ the freedom of thought and expression on the Internet by putting aside public interest in the issue.

“We are all aware of various examples of the last four to five years, number of companies mostly foreign that have provided data services promotions. Those are as much a violation of net neutrality as a zero rating programme would have been. So we would like to see a strong support for no kind of discriminatory data subsidisation,” Flipkart co-founder Mukesh Bansal said. After Flipkart’s walk-out from its venture, Airtel said in a statement that there have been “some misconceptions” about its Airtel Zero platform.

“It is a not a tariff proposition but is an open marketing platform,” the company said about Airtel Zero, which it launched last week to allow customers to access certain mobile applications for free with charges being borne by app makers.

Airtel Zero, as also similar services - internet.Org, launched by Reliance Communications and Facebook - among others, have come under attack with critics terming them as attempts to restrict ‘free’ Internet access to select platforms and against the ‘net neutrality’ regime.

Facebook has defended its project internet.Org saying that it is pro-internet access and hence does not violate net-neutrality principle. Interestingly, Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal had last month criticised the project, saying it was self-serving for Facebook.

Uninor also offers access to Facebook and WhatsApp at discounted rate. Internet Service Providers Association of India President Rajesh Chharia said: “I think it was a wrong step with wrong timing. When TRAI has started consultation process, companies should wait before announcing any plan that violates net-neutrality.

“There should be no discrimination on internet otherwise companies will start focusing on few websites that can destroy whole eco-system.” India Infosec Consortium, which deals into cyber security and internet governance related issues, criticised the move of TRAI which has started process to build framework for internet based companies.

“It was shocking to see TRAI forgetting it obligations as telecom regulator and instead protecting larger public interest, it has been seen protecting corporate interest,” IIC CEO Jiten Jain said. Meanwhile, telecom operators in the US, including giants like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T, have come out openly against a regulatory order there on net neutrality.

In a satirical rebuttal of the regulatory move, Verizon released a statement dated February 26, 1934 (when the first Communications Act was passed in the US) and using a typewriter font to suggest that the move was a retrograde step.