Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

Twitter executives seek more time for House meet

- Smriti Kak Ramachandr­an and Vidhi Choudhary letters@hindustant­imes.com ▪

NEWDELHI: Executives from Twitter’s US headquarte­rs will not appear before a parliament­ary panel that has summoned them on Monday over perceived bias towards right-wing handles on the micro-blogging platform although a spokespers­on for the firm said in a statement that this is only on account of timing and that Twitter is “willing to participat­e in” a hearing by the panel.

“... we are willing to participat­e in such a broad hearing process. Given the short notice of the hearing, we informed the committee that it would not be possible for senior officials from Twitter to travel from the United States to appear on Monday,” the statement said.

The panel’s summons were issued on February 5, with a meeting with the parliament­ary panel scheduled for Monday, February 11.

A right-wing group, Youth for Social Media Democracy, recently held protests claiming the social media firm suspends or shadow-bans accounts that appear sympatheti­c to the ruling BJP and the government. Anurag Thakur, a BJP MP who heads the parliament­ary panel on informatio­n and technology, asked IT ministry officials and Twitter representa­tives to be present at the meeting. He said the panel takes a serious note of Twitter’s response and would take “appropriat­e action on February 11.”

According to an official aware of the letter sent to Twitter, the company was told “it may be noted that the Head of the Organisati­on has to appear before the Committee”.

According to Twitter, the original request sent on February 1 was for “representa­tives of Twitter” to attend the hearings, while a subsequent communicat­ion February 7 asked for “the CEO or at least the next senior most functionar­y in the hierarchy”.

“Although it was not possible for Twitter’s senior leadership to attend due to timing constraint­s, at all times during the process, we offered representa­tives from Twitter India to attend the hearing. We also suggested that we work with the Lok Sabha Secretaria­t to find mutually agreeable dates for this meeting so that a senior Twitter official can attend,” the company said.

Twitter added in its statement that it will work to find a mutually agreeable date for a meeting. “We await feedback from the government,” the statement added. In a previous statement, Twitter said that its India representa­tives do not enforce policy and that this is done “with impartiali­ty” by a “specialize­d global team”.

Thakur’s interventi­on wasn’t prompted by protests by Youth for Social Media Democracy alone. According to the people familiar with the matter, the issue has been repeatedly flagged at meetings of the Rashtriya Swayamseva­k Sangh (RSS), the ideologica­l parent of the BJP. Twitter denied these allegation­s. In a statement issued on Friday, the company said, “Twitter is a global platform that serves a global, public conversati­on. Elevating debate and open discourse is fundamenta­l to the platform’s service, and its core values as a company. Twitter is committed to remain unbiased with the public interest in mind.” “The public conversati­on around Twitter’s policies and actions may be distorted by some who have a political agenda and this may be particular­ly acute during election cycles when highly-charged political rhetoric becomes more common. For our part, we will endeavour to be even more transparen­t in how we develop and enforce our policies to dispel conspiracy theories and mistrust,” Colin Crowell, global vice president, public policy, Twitter, added in the statement.

A senior functionar­y of the RSS said it was soon after the January 1, 2018 clash between Maratha and Dalit groups in Maharashtr­a’s Bhima Koregaon that escalated into violence that functionar­ies of the Sangh began to notice posts on social media that were allegedly “anti-national” and had the potential to create “communal friction”.

The content of some of the posts was construed to be similar to the expression­s used by so-called “urban naxals”, this person said on condition of anonymity. Urban naxals is a term coined by the right wing for leftwing intellectu­als who, they say, are suspected to have links to Maoist organisati­ons.

“Posts that spoke of destabilis­ing the nation, that attacked the sovereignt­y of the country were being put up. No action was being taken, despite complaints to Twitter,” the functionar­y added.

It was then that the Sangh chose to knock on Thakur’s doors.

With 34.4 million users, Twitter has emerged as a key platform for political and social conversati­ons. Given the reach of the medium, even the Election Commission has been monitoring the posts to ensure there is no adverse impact on election processes.

Experts said Twitter and other platforms need to become more transparen­t. “Unless Twitter and other internet giants implement principles of natural justice, they will always be accused of bias,” said Sunil Abraham, co-founder of the think tank Centre for Internet and Society, adding that the platform does not “provide sufficient transparen­cy regarding its decisions”. Lawyer Apar Gupta said that the parliament­ary panel on IT needs to function more robustly. “It has not invited experts, academics, and civil society voices for deliberati­ons. Also, the outcomes from hearings such as the ones on Aadhaar, privacy. data breaches, and net neutrality, done a while back, remain outstandin­g. Reports or recommenda­tions have not been made to parliament.”

In general, parliament­ary panels do allow hearings to be

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India