Parliamentary Committee on IT summons Facebook and Twitter officials on January 21

New Delhi, January 18: Parliamentary standing committee on Information Technology headed by Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Lok Sabha MP summoned officials of social media major's Facebook and Twitter over misuse of the social media/online news platforms. The sitting will be held from 4 pm onwards on January 21.

 

According to Lok Sabha Secretariat notice, the agenda of the next sittings of the panel will be "Evidence of representatives of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and to hear the views of the representatives of Facebook and Twitter on the subject 'Safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space." The sitting will be held from 4 pm onwards on January 21.

 

 

The panel was constituted in the month of September last year. The committee has comprised 31 members. The social media giant Facebook faced flak for showing apparent political bias that surfaced after a Wall Street Journal report that was published in the month of August. The constitution of the new standing committee was aimed at increasing answerability amid growing social media platforms.

 

 

 

Earlier, the committee had summoned Facebook's India head, Ajit Mohan, over the issue of political bias on the social media platform.

 

 

Similarly, in November last year, the Parliament panel on the Personal Data Protection Bill grilled Twitter Geo-Tagging Ladakh in China and Kunal karma's tweets. Following which Twitter's chief privacy officer Damien Kieran sent an apology letter to the Joint Committee for showing a northern Himalayan region as part of China.