Asia Inside Out Podcast: How India Saved the Internet

Indian activists wear Guy Fawkes masks as they hold placards during a demonstration supporting 'net neutrality' in Bangalore on April 23, 2015. (Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images)
Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images
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Last December, the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal "net neutrality" rules put in place by the Obama administration in 2015. Opponents of the decision are currently waging a campaign in the courts and in Congress to change the decision — but for now, net neutrality is essentially dead in the United States. What does this mean for the country's internet and digital market? And what can the United States learn from countries like India, which went through a public debate over the future of the internet and chose to fortify net neutrality instead?
In this episode of Asia Inside Out, Asia Society Policy Institute Assistant Director Anubhav Gupta speaks with Vishal Misra, a professor of computer science at Columbia University, and Nikhil Pahwa, founder of Medianama and co-founder of the Savetheinternet.in campaign in India, about the implications of the FCC’s decision. They explain how India, unlike the United States, was able to secure one of the most robust net neutrality regimes in the world through a grass-roots public movement.