Trade Barriers to Facebook
India's telecoms regulator has blocked Facebook's Free Basics internet service app as part of a ruling in favour of net neutrality.
The scheme offered free access to a limited number of websites.
However, it was opposed by supporters of net neutrality who argued that data providers should not favour some online services over others.
The free content included selected local news and weather forecasts, the BBC, Wikipedia and some health sites.
"No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content," ruled the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The body had been investigating whether any online content should be prioritised over others, or offered for free while others were not.
France’s data-protection regulator on Monday threatened to fine Facebook Inc.if the social-media site doesn’t change how it handles data about its users and others on the Internet, escalating a series of coordinated privacy probes into the social-network across five countries in Europe.
In a 17-page order dated Jan. 26 but published late Monday, France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés, or CNIL, said Facebook must within three months change a host of ways it collects and uses information about Internet users or face a sanctions proceeding that could lead to fines of up to 150,000 euros ($168,000).
The CNIL has ordered Facebook to, among other things, inform people who don’t have Facebook accounts that their Internet surfing is being tracked via like buttons across the Web, and to seek explicit consent for collecting information about users’ religious beliefs, sexual orientation and other sensitive information.
I am assuming that somebody, somewhere is writing a memo on whether these actions violate international trade agreements.