Marc Andreessen, one of Silicon Valley’s highly reputed venture capitalists and an on-board directors of Facebook (That fact is kinda important here, so stick with us), is disappointed that Free Basics campaign in India met with unprecedented backlash (see !!). And that guy didn’t take the rejection well, by tweeting the following on his handle.
Now @facebook Board Director @pmarca suggests being colonized was good for India & we should've let Fb do so:) pic.twitter.com/kq7ZsNTQGl
— Mahesh Murthy (@maheshmurthy) February 10, 2016
The founder of much celebrated VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z) thinks that the country would be doing so much better albiet in a brighter economic reality, if it remained under British rule and didn’t bother with the ‘anti-colonialist’ ideas like net neutrality. The economic catastrophe that Andreessen is referring to is the 30-odd years after the country gained independence in 1947, during which its growth rate was woefully low because of restrictive market policies and probably License Raj.
Andreessen’s notion of what is best for India is misguided and ill-informed, to say the least. Equally worrying is the fact that he believes India’s poorest don’t deserve the same open internet that he built his fortune on.
Twitter clearly wasn’t amused by Andreessen’s remark.
After deleting his tweet, Andreessen attempted to walk away from the train wreck of a discussion he fired up.
Unfortunately for him, we are intolerant towards stupidity. And we remember a hell lot than he actually can with his bearings on.
