Trai's decision an anti-colonialist idea: Facebook Board member Marc Andreessen

MUMBAI: Two days after the differential pricing regulation by the telecom regulator put an end to Facebook’s Free Basics programme in India, one of America’s most celebrated investors and Facebook board member Marc Andreessen took to Twitter to vent his ire, and ended up enraging Indians instead.

Andreessen tweeted early Wednesday morning, after a series of tweets expressing displeasure at the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s decision to bar all forms differential pricing. “Leap of net neutrality from "carriers shall not charge some content more" to "poor people shall not get free partial Internet" = astounding,” he said.

After a round of rebuttals and counter comments, Andreessen engaged with Indian net neutrality activists on the merits and demerits of Free Basics, eventually leading to the offensive tweet: "Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?"

The tweet led to massive outrage on Twitter, with people from all walks of life expressing displeasure at the American investor's insensitive and ill-though out remark.

"Disappointed with fellow @IllinoisCS alum @pmarca on his take on India's stand on #NetNeutrality. India lnnovates!!" tweeted Arvind Gupta, former IT Cell convener of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Andreessen later deleted the offensive tweet, but it was widely circulated on social media through screenshots.

He is known to block or restrict access to people who disagree with him, ended up blocking several people from his Twitter profile on Wednesday.

However, the co-founder of Netscape took to the microblogging platform late Wednesday evening, apologizing to the people of India.

"I apologize for any offense caused by my earlier tweet about Indian history and politics. I admire India and the Indian people enormously. "

"India is an amazing country with amazing people. Indian companies and people have had profoundly positive effect on the Internet and world!"

"I now withdraw from all future discussions of Indian economics and politics, and leave them to people with more knowledge and experience!"

"We certainly don't agree with and did not endorse Mr. Andreessen's comments, and are glad that he has apologized," said a Facebook spokesperson in an emailed comment to ET.