A spokesperson of Facebook said one of its engineers made a “mistake” which resulted in all the “confusion.”
The issue started soon after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg changed his profile picture on Sunday to support Digital India and urged others to follow suit. However, when curious IT professionals inspected the code running behind the profile picture colour filter that depicts India’s tricolor flag, they found it reads “_internetOrgProfilePicture__prideAvatar.” Immediately social media platforms across India began discussing whether Digital India, launched by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, is a front to support Internet.org, which many think will bring an end to net neutrality in India.
“The engineer employed the words ‘Internet.org profile picture’ as a shorthand name and it was not intentional. It has nothing to do with Internet.org, and Digital India is in no way tied with Internet.org. To erase all confusion we are changing the source code with immediate effect. Please continue to support Digital India initiative at fb.com/supportdigitalindia,” the spokesperson said.
Digital India is an ambitious project by the ruling government in India to provide all government services electronically to citizens. The focus is also to provide high-speed Internet and encourage startups in Information Technology. The project is touted to create huge investments in the technology sector and prime minister’s visit to Silicon Valley was primarily to introduce and woo IT giants to the Digital India initiative.
