The Standing Committee on Information and Technology, headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, will meet Twitter India representatives and officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Friday. The parliamentary panel has summoned the officials to question them about the steps they have taken to prevent the misuse of social media and online news platforms.
The agenda for Friday’s meeting is “to hear the views of representatives of Twitter followed by evidence of representatives Electronics Technology ‘Safeguarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space”.
The meeting comes at a time when tension has been brewing between Twitter and the Centre on the new information technology rules and the alleged “Congress toolkit” case. The Uttar Pradesh Police have also included Twitter in a first information report for not removing posts about the assault of an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad district on June 5. The company has been booked for “intent to a riot, promoting enmity and criminal conspiracy”. The Ghaziabad Police have sent a legal notice to Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari in the case.
Friday’s meeting may see Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party members trading barbs over Twitter tagging a few posts of saffron party leaders as “manipulated media”. Besides, the Centre’s ultimatum to Twitter to comply with the amended IT rules is also expected to come up for discussion, according to The Hindu.
The new information technology rules are a sweeping set of regulations – which were announced in February and became effective in May – framed to regulate social media companies, streaming and digital news content, virtually bringing them, for the first time, under the ambit of government supervision.
The rules require these platforms to appoint chief compliance officers, in order to make sure the rules are followed, nodal officers, to coordinate with law enforcement agencies, and grievance officers. It also requires social media platforms with over 50 lakh users to help in identifying the “originator” of messages upon the government’s request.
On June 5, the Centre had sent a final notice to Twitter to comply with the rules. It asked the company to appoint India-based nodal officers, warning that failure to do so will lead to “unintended consequences”.
Twitter has said it was “making every effort” to comply with the new rules. However, earlier it had criticised the regulations and said it was concerned about the “potential threat” to freedom of expression. On Tuesday, Twitter said that it had appointed an interim chief compliance officer in compliance with the new information technology rules and said that the details will be shared with the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology soon.
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