Indian official once beat Mark Zuckerberg, 'brightest tech minds' in his team by 'jugaad', here's how

A low-ranking official at India's telecom regulator reportedly outsmarted Facebook (now Meta) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his top team with a simple click, according to a new book by former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams.

The incident took place in 2016 when Facebook was aggressively pushing its Free Basics program in India. The initiative, which provided free internet access to select websites, faced scrutiny for allegedly violating net neutrality. To counter resistance, Facebook launched a mass email campaign, urging Indian users to send messages of support to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

However, according to Wynn-Williams' memoir Careless People, the campaign failed due to a simple but effective move by an official at TRAI. "Mark and some of the brightest tech minds in the world devoted months to this outreach strategy, and some low-ranking official in India outfoxed them simply by clicking an opt-out box," she writes. This move reportedly blocked millions of automated emails from Facebook, rendering their campaign ineffective.

Meta has dismissed the book’s claims, stating that Wynn-Williams was fired for poor performance and alleging that she is supported by anti-Facebook activists. The company has attempted to block the book's publication in the US, but it remains available in India.

The ban on Free Basics was seen as a major setback for Zuckerberg’s global expansion plans and a rare victory for digital rights activists in India.