RAMAN JIT SINGH CHIMA

Parliament’s standing committee for information technology has a mandate that touches the most i mportant issues for the connected present, and increasingly digital future, of India. Like all departmental parliamentary committees under the present system, its outputs are not automatically binding—they take the form of reports with findings and recommendations which are shared with the government and the full body of MPS for any action. But it plays a crucial role in holding government and other entities to account, opening up the policymaking process on technology issues to citizens and expert inputs, and using its power to call for hearings to also serve as a clear signalling function as to the approach the people of India wish on an issue.

A recent decision of the committee in choosing to hold hearings on the topic of citizen rights on social and online media, and only summoning representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and IT and one specific tech company, Twitter, should cause us to pause. In the United States, the topic of social media platform “bias” in favour of particular political parties was initially seen as a politically partisan step, with Republicans lawmakers raising the issue to criticise the perceived proDemocratic Party tilt of most of Silicon Valley’s workforce.

Those hearings still resulted in broader engagement on important public issues when public pressure made lawmakers ask specific questions about the data practices of technology platforms from key senior executives.

Parliamentary bodies across other countries have been seen as relevant and effective in how they have brought up the questions troubling their citizens regarding how their data and other fundamental rights are protected on online fora. Tech company CEOS and senior executives have been required to answer questions and