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The committee, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, had issued a summon to Twitter via an official letter on February 1.
The committee meeting was scheduled for February 7, but was later postponed to February 11 to allow the Twitter CEO and senior officials more time to make themselves available.
Twitter cited “short notice of the hearing” as the reason, despite being given 10 days to travel, the sources said.
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It further stated that “He/She may be accompanied by another representative.”
The Parliamentary IT Committee received a letter on February 7 from Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s global lead for legal, policy, trust and safety, stating, “No one who engages publicly for Twitter India makes enforcement decisions with respect to our rules for content or accounts in India.”
Deputing a junior employee to represent Twitter at the Indian Parliamentary IT Committee has not gone down well with the lawmakers especially since they have no decision-making authority, the letter from Gadde said.
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 among the fourth in the world after the US Congress, Singapore and EU hearing.