NEW DELHI: Even as the debate on Facebook’s Internet.org initiative violating net neutrality rages on, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg today said the platform has made free basic Internet services available to more than 800 million people in nine countries, including India.

Internet.org is a Facebook-led initiative which states that it aims to bring 5 billion people online in partnership with tech giants like Samsung and Qualcomm.

However, Facebook’s partnership with Reliance Communications in India to provide free Internet access to 33 websites as part of its Internet.org initiative has raised quite a few eyebrows with free Internet activists saying that it violates the idea of net neutrality.

“Internet.org, our effort to connect everyone in the world to the Internet, continues to gather momentum. We’ve now made free basic Internet services available to more than 800 million people in nine countries, including just in this quarter, launching in India, Colombia, Ghana, Guatemala, and the Philippines,” Zuckerberg said during its Q1 earnings call.

He added that more than seven million people, who weren’t connected to the Internet before, now use Internet.org to get online.

“And this year, we expect to connect even more people,” he said.

Zuckerberg, who has achieved a cult status after founding the world’s largest free social networking platform, has already spoken in defence of the initiative.

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