Have you heard of small start-ups such as Facebook and Google that became a global phenomenon? Their success is attributed to passionate entrepreneurship and, abracadabra, secret ingredients no one talks about.

Well one of these secret ingredients is a level playing field — what this essentially means is that your neighbourhood tea seller could become the Prime Minister of your country (equal opportunity to all without discrimination).

But in a country that is constantly divided by caste, creed and colour, the internet seems to be the last level playing field left.

The internet doesn’t care who you are or what you do, it will treat you in the same way as it treats companies like Facebook. It is because of this reason the internet is a utility for anyone and everyone. Want to impress your girlfriend/boyfriend? Google it? Feeling sad in a country far away from home? Tweet it. Have something on your mind? Share it. Can’t decide what the meaning of your life is? Search the internet.

But there are initiatives such as internet.org and Airtel Zero that want to take this away from all of us.

Hampering innovation On the surface they seem harmless and will tell you internet.org is an initiative to bring internet to the people that do not have access. (So nice of them and all of this for free, that is awesome!)

Well, actually, no, internet.org is not the internet that will allow you to access whatever you want. You can access the stuff only the good people at Facebook allow you to (kind of the way North Korea maintains control over its citizens).

A similar platform, ‘Airtel Zero’ by Airtel, will allow Airtel users to access certain content for free or at higher speeds, i.e., the sites which pay them will load faster on your phone, will be more accessible and all of this will happen without your realising what is happening.

Not only will this affect start-ups who can’t afford to pay your internet provider to prioritise or fast load/stream their content but also, in the long run, this will hamper innovations as we will not have access to the full potential of the internet. There are so many things the internet can do for us, things we haven’t even thought of yet, but if innovative start-ups can’t compete on a level playing field, then the internet will not be the internet.

This is something that affects the very nature of the internet. What these companies seem to have forgotten is there is no internet without people who use it — you . We use the internet and in some ways all of us are the internet. This is our time! This is our internet! How can you, as a netizen, help the internet, you ask? It is as simple as the internet, we need to send a clear and resounding message.

Abhinav Chaudhary is Founder, Smartprix.com

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