Facebook seeks to end storm over 'Digital India' profile picture issue

Blames engineer, says Digital India initiative has nothing to do with internet.org

Facebook on Tuesday tried to clarify that its 'Digital India' profile picture initiative had nothing to do with internet.org, after code below the tri-colour-tinted picture showed the words 'internet.org'.

The company called it a "mistake" by an engineer.

It all started when Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg changed his profile picture with a tint of green, saffron and white for the tricolour in a symbolic gesture to suggest he supports Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Digital India" campaign. He had asked others to follow suit.

Accordingly, a host of Facebook users also started doing the same. But it was soon noticed that if you changed your display, the code below had a small bit with the word internet.org, an initiative netizens have been opposing for violating net neutrality. 

It thus sent out a feeling that support to "Digital India" also meant support for Internet.org.

"There is absolutely no connection between updating your profile picture for 'Digital India' and Internet.org. An engineer by mistake used the words 'Internet.org profile picture' as a shorthand name he chose for part of the code," a Facebook spokesperson said.

"But this product in no way connects to or registers support for Internet.org. We are changing the code today to eliminate any confusion," he added.

Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, Zuckerberg has said on September 27: "I changed my profile picture to support Digital India, the Indian government's effort to connect rural communities to the Internet and give people access to more services online."

He added: "Looking forward to discussing this with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Facebook today." He also made a plea for people to shor their support at fb.com/supportdigitalindia.