In a letter issued by the parliamentary committee on information technology on 1 February, Twitter officials were summoned for a panel meeting on 7 February, which was then moved to 11 February to give the officials more time to make themselves available. However, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and the other officials of the company refused to attend this meeting citing “short notice of the hearing”, according to a report on 9 February.
Hours later now, another report by IANS suggests that Parliamentary Committee, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, is mulling an action against the platform.
Thakur reportedly said, “Of course it can be an issue of breach of parliamentary privilege. They are taking advantage of the world’s biggest market and are unwilling to answer.” He added that the committee “will take a serious note of it”. “It is a very serious subject, and the kind of reply they have given will be discussed in the parliamentary committee, and we will take further action on that,” he said.
BJP national spokesperson Meenakashi Lekhi also warned that if Twitter disrespects the parliament then there will be repercussions.
This comes at a time when there are growing concerns about safeguarding citizens’ data privacy and election interference through social media platforms.
Twitter’s conduct is being watched globally and their response is being seen with concern as India’s Parliamentary hearing is amongst the fourth in the world after the US Congress, Singapore and EU hearing.