Par panel summons Twitter head on Feb 25

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi 

The Parliamentary panel on has summoned the of site to appear before on February 25, the committee's Thakur said on Monday.

The panel decided to call officials against the backdrop of growing concerns about safeguarding citizens' data privacy and possibility that could be used to interfere in elections.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the government has been warning platforms of strong action if any attempt was made to influence the country's electoral process through undesirable means.

On Saturday, Twitter in a statement had cited "short notice of the hearing" for its not being able to attend the Monday meeting.

The committee's and BJP MP said Twitter and other representatives have been "summoned" to appear before the panel on February 25.

There was no immediate comment from Twitter.

The panel was scheduled to hear the views of the representatives of and and Twitter on 'Safeguarding citizens rights on social/ online media platforms'.

Senior officials from the IT ministry were present at the meeting here on Monday.

Earlier scheduled for February 7, the meeting was postponed to Monday to give more time to Twitter and other senior officials to make themselves available, sources said last week.

On Monday, sources said the panel would be meeting next on February 26. The heads of platforms like might also be asked to appear before it on February 26 but a final call is yet to be taken, they added.

Facing heat over allegations of political bias in the country, Twitter last week said it was committed to remain unbiased and that its product as well as policies are never based on political ideology.

The government has been taking a strong view of misuse of and is also proposing to amend IT rules to curb fake and increase accountability of such apps.

Over the last few months, Facebook, Twitter and have promised to infuse more transparency into political advertisements on their platform, and have since announced a slew of measures as part of election integrity efforts.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Mon, February 11 2019. 18:55 IST