Two RSS affiliate organizations — the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Laghu Udyog Bharati, criticized the recent Facebook-Reliance Jio deal, and said it raises many questions about privacy and net neutrality.
The Facebook, recently invested Rs 43,574 crore to purchase of 9.99 per cent stake in Reliance Jio.
The RSS organizations said the deal is a bigger threat to local entrepreneurs than the Amazon and Flipkart.
In addition to the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Laghu Udyog Bharati, even the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has expressed serious concern about the mega deal.
The CAIT is the largest body representing retail traders in India.
All the three organizations are of the opinion that both Facebook and Jio are market leaders in their respective fields, and have access to massive data.
The organizations are worried that the Facebook-Reliance Jio tie-up may lead to an unholy “digital colonisation” of India.
Reliance Jio is the largest telecom company in India with a subscriber base of more than 335 million.
The social networking site Facebook is also hugely popular in India, and has a user base of about 329 million.
WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook, has 400 million subscribers in India, and is growing every day.
In addition to that, Facebook also owns another popular social media platform —Instagram, which is also getting highly popular in India.
Though there is no clarity on the Facebook-Reliance Jio collaboration as yet, it has been reported that Facebook is expected help the growth of Reliance’s e-commerce portal — the JioMart.