Reacting to Twitter CEO and senior officials’ refusal to appear before the Parliamentary Committee on IT, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said the next course of action will be determined by the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of Lok Sabha and not the government.
“The Chairman of Rajya Sabha and Speaker of Lok Sabha will decide on what will be the action in such cases when somebody refuses to submit before a parliamentary committee, the government doesn’t take decisions on it,” Goyal was quoted as saying by ANI.
His response comes after reports emerged that Twitter CEO and top officials have declined to appear before the Parliamentary Committee on IT that had summoned them over the issue of safeguarding citizens’ rights on social media platforms. Twitter reportedly cited “short notice of the hearing” as the reason behind their refusal.
On February 1, the Parliamentary Committee led by Anurag Thakur had issued the summons to Twitter over the issue of safeguarding citizens’ rights on social media platforms.
The IT committee had received the response from Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s global lead for legal, policy, trust and safety, on February 7 stating: “No one who engages publicly for Twitter India makes enforcement decisions with respect to our rules for content or accounts in India.”
Twitter’s conduct is being watched globally amid concerns of social media platforms being used to breach citizens’ data and alleged interference in elections. India is fourth in the world to conduct a Parliamentary hearing in this regard after the US Congress, Singapore and EU hearing.
