A day after a Facebook board member called TRAI's decision against differential pricing as an “anti-colonialist” idea, the social networking giant's co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday said that he found the former's comments "deeply upsetting".
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Zuckerberg wrote,
“I want to respond to Marc Andreessen's comments about India yesterday. I found the comments deeply upsetting, and they do not represent the way Facebook or I think at all.
India has been personally important to me and Facebook. Early on in my thinking about our mission, I traveled to India and was inspired by the humanity, spirit and values of the people."
Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Facebook board member Marc Andreessen on Wednesday had taken to Twitter to vent his feelings against TRAI's decision.
In one particular tweet, which sparked off online criticism and was later deleted, he wrote,
“Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?”
He also said, "Denying world's poorest free partial Internet connectivity when today they have none, for ideological reasons, strikes me as morally wrong."
However, following the flak, Andreessen took to Twitter on Thursday to apologise for his comments.
1/Last night on Twitter, I made an ill-informed and ill-advised comment about Indian politics and economics.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 11, 2016
2/To be clear, I am 100% opposed to colonialism, and 100% in favor of independence and freedom, in every country, including India.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 11, 2016
3/I am a huge admirer of the nation of India and the Indian people, who have been nothing but kind and generous to me for many years.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 11, 2016
4/I apologize for any offense my comment caused, and withdraw it in full and without reservation.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 11, 2016
5/I will leave all future commentary on all of these topics to people with more knowledge and experience than me.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 11, 2016