Flipkart pulls out of Indian telecom Airtel Zero platform over net neutrality

International e-commerce giant Flipkart said Tuesday it is pulling out of the Airtel Zero platform with which it had recently partnered, citing suspected violation of internet neutrality by the latter.

Airtel Zero allows customers to access certain apps and websites without paying data charges as long as the makers of those apps and services pay it for the free access. Some say this goes against net neutrality.

Flipkart has been subject to criticism from social media and users after its CEO, Sachin Bansal, tweeted in support of Airtel Zero recently.

"We at Flipkart have always strongly believed in the concept of net neutrality, for we exist because of the Internet," said Flipkart.

"Over the past few days, there has been a great amount of debate, both internally and externally, on the topic of zero rating, and we have a deeper understanding of the implications, " said the company in a statement.

It said Flipkart will "be walking away from the ongoing discussions with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero".

"We will be committing ourselves to the larger cause of Net Neutrality in India. We will be internally discussing over the next few days, the details of actions we will take to support the cause," it said. Endi