Twitter row: Twitter team arrives at Parliament, now Modi govt refuses to meet them

Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology on Monday passed a resolution unanimously that they will not meet any Twitter officials until senior members or CEO of the Twitter Global team depose before the Committee. A 15 days deadline has been given to Twitter, news agency ANI reported.

Earlier in the day, a team of Twitter officials including Twitter India representatives arrived at the Parliament to appear before Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology on Monday. Twitter had previously refused to appear citing 'short notice' of the hearing. The Parliamentary Committee, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, had issued a summon to Twitter via an official letter on February 1.

The letter sent to Twitter by the Parliamentary IT Committee on February 1 clearly stated that "it may be noted that the Head of the Organisation has to appear before the Committee". 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 Indian lawmakers especially since they have no decision making authority, the letter from Gadde said.

Twitter's conduct is being watched globally and their response is being seen with concern as India's Parliamentary hearing is amongst the fourth in the world after the US Congress, Singapore and EU hearing.

With PTI inputs