As per the recent developments, Twitter India CEO and other top officials on Saturday have declined to appear before the Parliamentary Committee on IT, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Anurag Thakur.
Thakur had sent a summon to Twitter India via an official letter on February 1, over the issue of safeguarding citizens’ rights on social media platforms, sources in the panel said Saturday.
The meeting which was earlier scheduled for February 7, was later postponed to February 11, allowing Twitter officials to take more time and make themselves available.
As per the reports, the Twitter has cited “short notice of the hearing” as the reason for their unavailability, despite being given 10 days to travel.
Also read: BJP’s Anurag Thakur summons Twitter India to ‘secure citizens’ rights’
In the letter sent to the Twitter officials on February 1, it was stated that “it may be noted that the Head of the Organisation has to appear before the Committee”. It further stated that “He/She may be accompanied by another representative.”
The Parliamentary IT Committee received a letter on February 7 from Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s global lead for legal, policy, trust and safety, stating, “No one who engages publicly for Twitter India makes enforcement decisions with respect to our rules for content or accounts in India.”
The move by Parliamentary committee on IT came after the BJP government claimed that people of a particular ideology are being targeted on Twitter repeatedly.
Twitter has faced increasing scrutiny globally over its conduct and India’s parliamentary hearing is the fourth one in the world after similar ones in US, Singapore and the European Union.