Twitter CEO, top officials decline to appear before parl panel: Sources
New Delhi: Twitter CEO and top officials have declined to appear before the Parliamentary Committee on IT that had summoned them over the issue of safeguarding citizens' rights on social media platforms, sources in the panel said Saturday.
The Parliamentary Committee, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, had issued a summon to Twitter via an official letter on February 1.
The parliamentary 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.
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.
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 amongst the fourth in the world after the US Congress, Singapore and EU hearing.
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Three arrested for running fake Aadhaar racket in UP's Badaun
Budaun (UP), Apr 30 (PTI): The Budaun Police on Thursday busted a gang allegedly involved in preparing fake Aadhaar cards and forged documents, and arrested three of its members, officials said.
The action was carried out in the Hazratpur area, where the accused were found operating an illegal setup to generate fake identity documents, they said.
The accused have been identified as Farman Ali, a resident of Munshi Nagla, Anuj Kumar of Uprela, and Brajnandan of Sirsauli.
The police said a fingerprint scanner, three laptops, a hard disk, a scanner, a large number of Aadhaar cards and several suspicious documents were recovered from their possession.
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During interrogation, it was revealed that the gang had been involved in preparing fake identity documents for a long time, misleading people and earning money through illegal means, officials said.
Station House Officer Pushpendra Singh said the accused have been produced before a court, and efforts are underway to identify and arrest other members of the gang.
He added that further revelations are likely as the investigation progresses.
