BENGALURU: Bharti Airtel was at the receiving end of a brutal backlash on the Internet after it decided to impose special tariff for voice calls made over services like Skype or Viber.The telecom operator’s decision to charge more for voice services that run using data is being vehemently opposed by consumers, many of whom took to the Internet to vent their anger.Within hours, a call on a website called netneutrality.in, which asked consumers to raise their voice against Airtel’s move, was shared more than 20,000 times on Facebook and Twitter Net neutrality is the notion that service providers must not differentiate between the traffic that flows over their network so that every user and service has equal access to the network.The site, set up by a website developer, Ishan Sharma, received over 1.2 lakh views after it was shared on discussion forum Reddit on Christmas noon (December 25).“Internet started as a neutral, open network and is not owned by anyone, including telcos. It should remain like that for continued innovation,” Sharma told ET in an email. Airtel was called the ‘evil Santa’ by many users, some of whom even suggested asking hacker group Anonymous to protest Airtel’s move. The group has previously attacked websites of corporate giants like Visa, MasterCard and PayPal in protest.The telecom company’s new tariff bills customers based on the number of minutes for which a service like Skype is used. That is a shift in the way data services have traditionally been billed — data services are usually charged based on the amount of data that is being used. “It makes no sense at all. It is also weird that Airtel shifts terminology from MBs to minutes based on their own convenience,” said NT Balanarayan, an IT professional based in Noida. While Airtel tries to justify the charge saying that it has invested heavily into network expansion, consumers point out that they have already paid for the data and do not want to be paying extra for using a service that runs using data. Airtel didn’t respond to an email sent by ET on Sunday. The company said earlier that it has invested more than Rs 140,000 crore in the past three years to roll out network and that it will continue to charge users for VoIP services.“However, in line with our philosophy of putting our customers above all else, we are committed to making VoIP services extremely affordable and attractive by ensuring adequate minutes for a very small charge on VoIP,” said Airtel in an earlier statement.Many people also signed and forwarded petitions to telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to strike mindown Airtel’s new tariff for VoIP services. Prasad has promised to “look into” the issue. “I hope the court or the government steps in and shoots down this proposition before it goes live,” said Balanarayan. On popular social networking sites and forums, consumers criticised Airtel’s move, and have started a hashtag #AirtelFuture-Charges to make fun of charges they said Airtel might come up with – like for instance: “Booking tatkal on IRCTC? Pay Rs 100 per ticket to Airtel.”#ChindiChor and #BoycottAirtel were two other hashtags that became popular on Twitter.On change.org, an online petition site, a petition asking the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to stop Airtel from charging VoIp users more and protect net neutrality gathered over 2,000 signatures.Meanwhile, another social media campaign which voiced support for Airtel, #WeSupportYouAirtel, didn’t find much traction in the online world.