The Parliamentary Standing Committee on InformationTechnology on Friday grilled two Twitter India representatives for about 1.5hours not abiding by the latest laws for the social media platforms.
The 31-member Parliamentary Standing Committee,comprising of 21 Lok Sabha members and 10 Rajya Sabha members and headed byCongress' Shashi Tharoor, had summoned Twitter over issues related to misuse ofits platform.
Tharoor has informed the micro-blogging site that “thelaw of the land is supreme, not its policy.”
It also asked the micro-blogging site why it should notbe fined for violating the rules.
Notably, the meeting was convened at the time whenTwitter is engulfed in a war of words over the newly formed IT norms while mostof other sites have complied with the rules.
It has been learnt from the sources that the panel hastold Twitter to gently comply with the rules to avoid some serious repercussions.
Reportedly when Twitter representatives were asked whetherits company rules are more significant than the laws framed by the government,one of them gave a ‘vague response saying ‘Twitter rules are equally importantfor them.’
Sources said that Twitter India's public policy managerShagufta Kamran and legal counsel Ayushi Kapoor had deposed before the panel,and Committee members questioned its policy to appoint fact-checkers, askingwhat is their credibility?
"Ruling party members claimed that most of TwitterIndia fact-checkers are openly opposed to the Narendra Modi regime. With abiased view, how do they do unbiased fact-checking," a source said.
A BJP member in the committee said that while Twitter wasquick to label party spokesperson Sambit Patra's tweet as "manipulatedmedia", it did nothing about the recent Ghaziabad incident or during Delhiriots, as per the source.
"Twitter did not respond to the member'scharges," the source said.
Members of the Committee took strong objection to theTwitter India representative's observation that its policy is on par with therules.
"The Committee categorically told Twitter the law ofland is supreme, not your policy. All members including from opposition partiesspoke in one voice against Twitter. Even Mohua Moitra of Trinamool Congressquestioned Twitter on why it didn't follow rules. Members asked why it shouldbe fined for violating land of law," the source said.
It is learnt that Twitter blamed the pandemic for the delayin the adoption of the IT Intermediary rules at which members asked when all theother social media platforms could follow these, why couldn't Twitter.
In a statement, the Twitter spokesperson said: "We appreciatethe opportunity to share our views before the Standing Committee on InformationTechnology. Twitter stands prepared to work with the Committee on the importantwork of safeguarding citizens' rights online in line with our principles oftransparency, freedom of expression, and privacy.
"We will also continue working alongside the IndianGovernment as part of our shared commitment to serve and protect the publicconversation."
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information andTechnology had asked Twitter to appear before it on June 18 to present itsviews on prevention of misuse of its platform.
The Committee was supposed to hear the views ofrepresentatives of Twitter followed by evidence from representatives of theMinistry of Electronics and Information Technology on the subject 'Safeguardingcitizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social or online news mediaplatforms'.
Reiterating here, earlier this month, the Centre govtissued a notice to Twitter giving it one last chance to “immediately” complywith the new IT rules and warned the platform of losing exemption fromliability under the IT Act if shown non-compliance.