Vice President and Global Policy head of Twitter Colin Crowell on Monday presented himself before the Parliamentary  Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) and agreed to appoint an officer to work closely with the Election Commission after the members in the panel sought assurance from him that there would not be any bias and "foreign influence” in the upcoming elections in India.

"Twitter public policy head Colin Crowell gave us response of some questions, he'll file written reply on rest of the questions in 10 days. Officials of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram will appear before committee on March 6," said the panel head and BJP MP Anurag Thakur after the meeting that lasted over three hours.

Thakur said it  was alleged in some countries that free & fair polls couldn't happen and there was foreign interference. "Parliamentary committee on IT members believe that to ensure elections in India are free& fair, these technology companies should meet Election Commission time to time",  he said in a tweet.

While Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, like the previous meeting, skipped appearance before the Parliamentary Committee, the panel head read out a personal letter written by Dorsey to him, after which the micro-blogging site's Vice President and Head of Global Policy Colin Crowell was allowed to represent the company at the meeting.

Sources said the panel asked Twitter to ensure that Indian elections are not undermined and influenced by foreign entities.  Thakur, they said, stressed that Twitter must work on real-time basis to address issues. Twitter has been given 10 days' time to reply in writing to questions that remained unanswered and its officials may be called again, they said adding senior officials of other soial media platforms such as Facebook and its affiliates WhatsApp and Instagram have been summoned for an appearance on March 6.

Twitter agreed to appoint a nodal officer to work with the Election Commission to address any issues that arise during the elections.

Joel Kaplan (Vice President - Global Public Policy) will represent Facebook as well as its group companies - WhatsApp and Instagram at the March 6 meeting. Facebook India VP and Managing Director Ajit Mohan and Ankhi Das (Director Public, Policy and Programs India) will represent Facebook India, they said.

Facebook said it is "deeply committed to India and to safeguarding our users and their rights on our family of apps". The government has taken a tough view of misuse of social media platforms and is also proposing to amend IT rules to curb fake news and increase accountability of such a platform.

The micro-blogging site had earlier this month stated that it believes in the impartiality and does not take any actions, such as blocking of accounts, based on political views. The issue came up after several accounts believed to be those expressing right wing views were alleged to have been blocked by the site.