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Facebook Director 'Sorry' For India Comments

Facebook Director 'Sorry' For India Comments

A Facebook director has apologised for saying on Twitter that anti-colonialism has been "economically catastrophic" for the Indian people.

Marc Andreessen's comments came after India's telecoms authority banned Facebook's Free Basics service - a free, partial internet service featuring services chosen by Facebook - in the country.

He wrote on Twitter that the decision was "ideological", saying: "Denying world's poorest free partial internet connectivity when today they have none, for ideological reasons, strikes me as morally wrong."

When someone said that the Free Basics service sounded like "internet colonialism", Mr Andreessen responded: "Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?"

But his comments caused anger, with one person replying: "Don't p*** off a billion people."

Another said: "Yup, Marc Andreessen and Facebook clearly see themselves as the new East India Company colonial saviours to poor brown India."

Mr Andreessen quickly deleted the tweet, before posting an apology.

"Last night on Twitter, I made an ill-informed and ill-advised comment about Indian politics and economics," he said.

"To be clear, I am 100% opposed to colonialism, and 100% in favour of independence and freedom, in any country, including India.

"I apologise for any offence my comment caused, and withdraw it in full and without reservation."

It was particularly awkward timing by Mr Andreessen - just a day after official figures showed that India outpaced China's 2015 economic growth.

The Free Basics scheme would have offered free access to a limited number of websites in India, but supporters of net neutrality opposed it, saying data providers should not favour some online services over others.

The free content included selected local news and weather forecasts, Wikipedia and some health sites.