Rule of land supreme, not your policy: Parliamentary panel grills Twitter
- Twitter India was told by the Shashi Tharoor-led parliamentary committee that the 'Indian laws are supreme and the firm has to abide by them'
Amid a tussle between the Centre and Twitter over the new IT rules, officials of the microblogging site on Friday deposed before a parliamentary panel over preventing misuse of social media.
During a nearly 95-minute deposition before the government panel, Twitter India officials faced difficult questions from MPs across party lines.
The IT panel asked the company, if it follows the law or the land, to which a representative responded saying, "We follow our own policies".
Twitter India was told by Congress' Shashi Tharoor-led parliamentary committee that the "Indian laws are supreme and the firm has to abide by them".
"Rule of land supreme and not your policy," the parliamentary panel told Twitter officials on IT.
Members of the Parliamentary Panel also asked Twitter why it should not be fined as it has been found "violating" the rules of the country.
Earlier this month, the Centre issued a notice to Twitter giving it one last chance to "immediately" comply with the new IT rules and warned that failure to adhere to the norms will lead to the platform losing exemption from liability under the IT Act.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology, chaired by Tharoor, had last week summoned Twitter over issues related to misuse of the platform and protection of citizens' rights.
Twitter India's public policy manager Shagufta Kamran and legal counsel Ayushi Kapoor deposed before the panel on Friday.
Twitter and the Centre have been at loggerheads over several issues for the last few months.
The microblogging site had faced backlash when it briefly removed the 'blue tick' verification badge from the personal account of Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and of several senior RSS functionaries, including its chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Earlier, Delhi Police had sent a notice to Twitter, seeking an explanation of how it described an alleged "Congress toolkit" against the Central government as manipulated media.
The police reportedly had also questioned Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari on May 31 and visited the Twitter India offices in Delhi and Gurgaon on May 24 over the toolkit issue.
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First Published:19 Jun 2021, 05:24 AM IST
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