Twitter CEO & top officials refuse to appear before parliamentary committee
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and top executives have refused to appear before the parliamentary committee. He was summoned on the issue of the protection of citizens’ rights on social media platforms. Parliamentary committee headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur issued a summon to Twitter through an official letter on February 1. The meeting of the parliamentary committee was due on February 7, but later it was postponed on February 11 due to Twitter’s CEO and senior officials.
Sources say that Twitter officials have refused to appear in front of the committee by referring to ‘brief notice of hearing’, while they were given 10 days to reach here. It is being reported that in a letter sent to Twitter by the parliamentary IT committee on February 1, it was clearly stated that ‘the head of the organization is to be present before the committee. He may be with another representative.’ The top officials have refused to appear in front of the committee at the time when concerns about the data privacy and security of election interference through social media platforms are increasing concerns.
The officials facing allegations of political discrimination in India clarified it on Friday. Twitter India said that the microblogging site, which believes in accepting all users as similar and implementing similar rules, does not take action to block account based on political views. On 11th February the Twitter IT Standing Committee had to put its side on the allegations of discrimination. Supporters of ruling party BJP on Twitter had alleged that it takes action against right-wing ideas and deliberately blocks people’s accounts, which are connected to the BJP or the right wing. In front of the Twitter India office, people of the organization ‘Youth for Social Media Democracy’ had protested. Earlier Twitter had been summoned in the United States, Singapore and European Union.
