What’s more important? Restricted free Internet access for the poor? Or maintaining an open, neutral Internet without limitations? This is the debate Facebook is having with the world via petitions to regulators, skeptical forums, and today, full-page newspaper ads.

The subject of contention is Free Basics, Facebook and Internet.org‘s app that offers free data access but only to a limited section of the Internet. Free Basics is available in roughly 35 countries through Facebook’s partnerships with mobile carriers who see it as a way to persuade people to buy data plans.

But Facebook’s control over the technical guidelines for what qualifies for free access and its ability to highlight its own services have sparked on-going backlash from net neutrality advocates.

This week regulators in India, the largest nation in the program, required Facebook’s local carrier partner Reliance to temporarily shut down Free Basics. That was despite Facebook thrusting a petition in front of its users requesting they click to send the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India an email to “Save Free Basics In India“. The TRAI will make a final decision on whether to allow Free Basics next month.

Read the article “Facebook Confronts the Free Internet Neutrality Dilemma” on techcrunch.com.