By Aakriti Srivastava and Nikhil Pahwa Wikipedia Zero, a Net Neutrality violating programme that allowed access to the online encyclopaedia without any data consumption being counted, is being discontinued. "Over the course of this year, no additional Wikipedia Zero partnerships will be formed, and the remaining partnerships with mobile operators will expire," the Wikimedia Foundation said in a blog post. Wikipedia Zero is one of two global zero rating programs, with the other being Facebook's Free Basics, which hasn't been discontinued yet. Since its launch in 2012, Wikipedia Zero had partnered with 97 mobile carriers in 72 countries. Among them was Aircel in India. Both Wikipedia Zero and Free Basics were disallowed and discontinued in India following the TRAI's ruling on Differential Pricing. The announcement, the foundation said, was made after “careful evaluation”, adding that there has been a significant drop off in adoption and interest in the programme since 2016. This may be partly because of the rapidly shifting mobile industry, and reduction in mobile data costs. Further, the Wikimedia Foundation found little awareness of the brand outside North America and Europe. In a 2016 research, it learned that many people in Nigeria, India, and Mexico were unaware that Wikipedia exists, let alone how to use it. The question of Net Neutrality Wikimedia had earlier argued that Wikipedia Zero was not commercial: it did not pay carriers to zero-rate it did not receive payments from carriers through Wikipedia Zero. It also restricted Wikipedia Zero from being sold as a…
