It looks like Twitter is in for some real big trouble. Following their arrogant response to the summons of the Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology, the Committee has refused to entertain their requests, until the CEO himself turns up for the meeting.
Recently Twitter agreed to send its representatives to the Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology. As per the tweet posted by news agency ANI, the Twitter Asia head, along with Twitter India representatives, including Mahima Kaul, Twitter India policy head, were present for the parliamentary committee meeting.
Twitter team including Twitter India representatives arrive at Parliament to appear before Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology today. Earlier Twitter had refused to appear citing 'short notice' of the hearing. The Committee had called Twitter via a letter on Feb 1. pic.twitter.com/UZkLoEIyu3
— ANI (@ANI) February 11, 2019
However, in a unanimous decision, taken in the presence of committee head and popular BJP MP Anurag Thakur, the committee refused to entertain the request of any of the members of Twitter India, until they came up with the CEO or at least the global operations head. This is not all. Keeping in mind the arrogant response the committee initially received, they also issued a deadline of 15 days for the same. You can’t cut the cake and eat it too, can you dear Twitter?
The same was certified by Vikas Pandey, a popular BJP volunteer, who posted the following tweets:-
Sources: Asia Head etc have been asked to come again with Jack. 💪 https://t.co/6PfcxVeQGQ
— Vikas Pandey (Sankrityayan) Modi ji’s Family (@MODIfiedVikas) February 11, 2019
Sources: Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology has passed a resolution *unanimously* that they will not meet any Twitter officials until senior members or CEO of the Twitter Global team depose before the Committee. 15 days deadline has been given to Twitter.
— Vikas Pandey (Sankrityayan) Modi ji’s Family (@MODIfiedVikas) February 11, 2019
For those unaware, social media site, Twitter was under the radar for its heavily biased policies in dealing with various ideologies. While on one hand it shamelessly peddled propaganda as favoured by left-liberals, it would come down hard on right wingers for even the most innocuous of tweets. Irked by such blatant favoritism, the parliamentary committee decided to summon the Twitter CEO or at least the global operations head, asking them to explain how fundamental rights of citizens could be safeguarded on the mentioned platform.
बड़े बेआबरू होकर तेरे कुचे से निकले। @TwitterIndia , after rejected by Parliamentary Committee. pic.twitter.com/KsZLTnSlWc
— Ashoke Raj (@Ashoke_Raj) February 11, 2019
Interestingly, in a rather arrogant and contemptuous reply, the officials from Twitter refused to appear before the committee, citing ‘short duration of notice’. The hypocrisy of the social media site was clearly visible in the reply of its officials.
However, with the stern reply of the committee, it is clear that the NDA government this time is no pushover. It is no surprise that the data colonization is a growing menace, and social media websites have been quite instrumental in giving it an undue edge in the field of information technology. To make matters worse, the intense bias that people calling the shots in the organization have is not only harmful to their own sites, but also the entire digital world. In such a circumstance, the bold attitude of the Indian parliamentary committee in just the right degree was much needed.
