On Wednesday, Facebook’s founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi to conduct a town hall Question & Answer session with the audience. In the first few minutes itself, it was clear that those present had a lot of questions for Zuckerberg, many of them about his venture internet.org, which has courted controversy amidst India’s debate on net-neutrality.

The Q&A started on mostly banal questions which touched upon his journey as a technology entrepreneur and his ideas on using the internet to make the world a better place. A loud cheer came from the audience when Zuckerberg announced that he and his wife are soon expecting a daughter. An even louder cheer followed when he wooed the crowds by calling IIT-Delhi one of the “finest” technology institutions in the world.

Interestingly, the issue of annoying requests from games such as Candy Crush came up during the course of the conversation as Zuckerberg assured the audience that the company is working to “fix” it.


Zuckerberg went on to say that internet.org, which is called Free Basics now, supports net-neutrality “completely” which resulted in many highlighting the fact that while the platform may not explicitly “discriminate” between services which would be offered for free, it did reserve the right to reject applications.

The choice of questions too led to another – unasked – question.

Zuckerberg amused the audience with an anecdote about his visit to Taj Mahal on Tuesday, mentioning a girl who, while trying to take his photograph, “wiped out on the sidewalk and fell into a bush”.  “Luckily she wasn’t hurt," Zuckerberg said. "I patted her on the back and told her she needed to be careful. He went on to add that Taj Mahal is one of the few places in the world that look better than their pictures.

All this proved more than enough fodder for Twitter to stifle a yawn, while taking a barb or two with characteristic humour, even as many pointed out that the Q&A was low on substance and little more than just “hot air”.

Here’s a selection: