House panel on IT summons Twitter

The Standing Committee on Information and Technology, headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, has summoned Twitter representatives to appear before the panel on June 18 to hear their views on the steps they had taken to prevent the misuse of social media and online news. Fireworks are expected in Thursday’s meeting of the IT panel, with the Opposition and the BJP warring over Twitter tagging a few posts of BJP leaders as “manipulated media”. In May, Mr. Tharoor wrote to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Twitter’s ‘manipulated media” tag drawing the ire of panel member and BJP leader Nishikant Dubey, who wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker, demanding the ouster of Mr, Tharoor claiming that he is using the standing committee as an “extension of the Congress”. The agenda for Thursday's meeting is, “To hear the views of representatives of Twitter followed by evidence of representatives Electronics Technology ‘Safeguarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space.” Other than the differences between the Congress and the BJP on the “manipulated media” tag, the MeitY’s ultimatum to Twitter to comply with the amended IT rules is also expected to come up for discussion.