Companies commit to net neutrality while ignoring the hazards of zero rating

By Jie Zhang

Zero rating poses real threats to freedom of expression, but most telcos we rank did not disclose what they do to evaluate and mitigate its risks.

As a means of attracting new users, telecommunication companies and other internet service providers (ISPs) commonly partner with digital platforms to offer zero-rating programs. These programs exempt access to and usage of certain services, apps, or content from a user’s data consumption or data cap. Although zero-rating providers depict these programs as a socially beneficial way of promoting greater internet access across the globe, zero rating has become one of the most controversial digital rights issues today.

By favoring some apps or content over others—and marketing it to users as a “free” service—zero rating distorts how users access the web while obscuring the true goal of gathering people’s data.

Zero rating conflicts with the widely recognized principle of net neutrality, the idea that companies providing internet access, including telcos and other ISPs, should treat internet traffic equally. Net neutrality is crucial for freedom of expression, because it ensures that companies cannot prioritize serving content they profit from or have an interest in. By favoring some apps or content over others—and marketing it to users as a “free” service— zero rating distorts how users access the web while obscuring the true goal of gathering people’s data.

Zero-rating programs also result in an array of other hazards for users, particularly those from the Global South. Research has found that zero-rating arrangements jeopardize media pluralism, lead to the spread of disinformation, increase broadband costs for users, and distort fair competition between providers. It may even serve as a weapon for what some researchers have referred to as “data colonialism.” For example, Facebook famously launched its Free Basics program in 2013 with the purported goal of connecting rural communities in the Global South. But as the company became a main gateway for these communities to access the web, it was accused of violating net neutrality and harvesting metadata. A report by Global Voices found that Meta acts like an ISP and collects users’ traffic data; Facebook is also the only popular social media app it provides.

This year, zero rating faced a reckoning. The European Union began formulating a new consensus against its use. In September 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that zero-rating options violate net neutrality principles and are incompatible with EU laws. Following the court’s decision, Europe’s top telecom regulator, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, revised its net neutrality guidelines to ban zero-rating services. In April, the German telecom regulator prohibited Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone Germany from offering their zero-rating plans, StreamOn and Vodafone Pass, respectively. In June, Norwegian regulatory body Nkom ordered Telenor to stop offering its zero-rated music streaming option known as Music Freedom by the end of this year. Zero-rating practices in Europe seem to be coming to an end.

But globally, they’re far from done: The same telco giants recently banned from running zero-rating services in Europe can still provide these same services to users in other countries, particularly in the Global South, where a significant portion of the population relies on zero rating as a means of reducing the cost to access the internet. The lack of a regulatory framework for telecommunications in many of these countries means that these practices could continue unabated for a long time to come. And in the U.S., following a protracted fight, net neutrality was instituted in 2015. It was subsequently revoked by the Trump Administration in 2017, and has yet to be reinstated.

Despite purported adherence to the principles of an open internet, four companies, including América Móvil, Deutsche Telekom, Telenor, and Vodafone, still provided zero-rating services in their home markets.

RDR expects companies that make use of zero rating to conduct thorough human rights risk assessments to identify and mitigate harms. Of the 12 telecommunications companies we rank, 10^[1] still offered zero-rating plans as of June 1, 2022. Of these, only Telefónica revealed that it conducted human rights due diligence for its zero-rating practices, though seven companies did make some type of commitment to “net neutrality.” Despite purported adherence to the principles of an open internet, four of those companies, including América Móvil, Deutsche Telekom, Telenor, and Vodafone, still provided zero-rating services in their home markets. AT&T is currently the only company we rank that has clearly and fully committed to net neutrality and did not provide any zero-rating plans.