As many as 67 different privacy advocating websites from around the world have written an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg lashing out at the Facebook CEO alleging that their Internet.org plan is in gross violation to net neutrality.

The letter says that Facebook's Internet.org plan that envisions some connectivity in favour of no connectivity at all to certain sections of the society cannot be "construed as justification for violations of net neutrality."

Privacy advocates from India such as IT for Change and SavetheInternet.in have also signed the joint petition.

Zuckerberg had recently defended Internet.org saying that while net neutrality is important, programs like Internet.org are important as well and can coexist with regulations.

The open letter alleges that Facebook was "improperly defining net neutrality in public statements and building a walled garden in which the world's poorest people will only be able to access a limited set of insecure websites and services." Their argument being that Internet.org "only provides access to a limited number of Internet-connected services that are approved by Facebook and local ISPs" hence it was misleading people into believing that it was providing full Internet.

According to privacy advocates, the concept of Zero Rating is "discriminatory, which is why it has been banned or restricted in countries such as Canada, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Chile."

In a way Facebook's Internet.org is not very different from Zero Rating services as both give you access to certain Internet apps/services for free.

In addition, it also violates freedom of expression and could be a privacy threat for new Internet users, says the open letter.