Amid the Twitter row, the Parliamentary panel on Information Technology, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, on Tuesday, summoned officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to gather evidence on ‘safeguarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space.
The agenda of the meeting was to collect evidence from the representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting 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’.
This comes a few days after the Parliamentary Standing Committee had summoned and asked Twitter India to submit in writing about how it is placed in the global branch and how much executive authority it has in terms of making important policy decisions.
Meanwhile, Twitter in its replies to the panel on blocking of Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the accounts were blocked under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). “Twitter will make a good faith effort to contact the affected account holder with information concerning the removal or restriction of access, including a full copy of the complaint, along with instructions for filing a counter-notice. The account holder is asked to review and acknowledge an in-app notification that confirms that they have understood Twitter’s copyright policy and once they do so, the account is automatically unlocked,” it said.
Earlier, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology on the issue of the misuse of the social media platforms summoned officials from Facebook and Google on June 29, 2021.