Marc Andreessen. Photo: ReutersMarc Andreessen, Silicon Valley’s venture capitalist and a member of Facebook’s board, invited the wrath of thousands on Twitter with a tweet that seemed to justify colonialism while trying to express his disappointment at the social media site's Free Basics being shot down by the Indian telecom watchdog.
Andreessen tweeted: Anti-colonialims has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?
What he probably meant were the policies of the Indian government decades soon after Independence that stifled growth. But for a people who had borne the colonial yoke for more than two centuries, it was beyond the pale.
Hit by the backlash, Andreessen deleted the tweet. And said:
And for the record, I am opposed to colonialism, in any country. https://t.co/3ommgZssMm
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 10, 2016
But the damage was already done.
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