The summon was tweeted by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, who is the chairman of the panel and the party's child whip in the lower House.
The Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology has asked representatives of Twitter and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to appear in front of it on February 11. The summon was tweeted by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, who is the chairman of the panel and the party's child whip in the lower House.
The agenda of the meeting, which will take place in the Parliament House Annexe building at 3 pm, is "to hear the views of the representatives of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and Twitter on the subject 'Safeguarding citizens' rights on social/online news media platforms' (sic)."
Thakur tweeted that both the entities will "present their views". He also encouraged people to tweet or email their views to the panel's email id: comit@sansad.nic.in. The summon follows a campaign carried out by a collective Youth for Social Media Democracy (YSMD), who hit the Delhi streets on February 3 to protest what they termed as the clamping down of Right-Wing voices on the site.
The group subsequently wrote to Thakur asking for an audience, which is what prompted the summon. The group wrote that Left-Wing voices, despite being offensive and abusive, have not been taken down, while voices from the other side have been silenced.
Ahead of a crucial election year, where political parties are expected to mount intensive campaigns on social media, the role of platforms like Facebook and Twitter have come under focus. To this end, the Election Commission of India wrote to Twitter and Facebook to ensure that the poll code is not violated and politicians do not tweet after the model code of conduct kicks in.
Safeguarding Rights On News Platforms
- The Parliamentary panel on IT will meet Twitter & MEITY representatives on Feb 11
- The agenda of the meeting is to hear the views of the MEITY and Twitter on ‘safeguarding citizens’ rights on social/online news media platforms
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