Parliamentary panel asks twitter CEO to appear on Feb 25, after he failed to appear on Feb 11
BJP spokes person termed it as an "insult" of the country to ignore summons
New Delhi: The parliamentary panel on Information technology on Sunday refused hear the representatives of global social media platform twitter, who were appearing for the company over “safeguarding citizens’ rights on social media” and asked the company’s CEO Jack Dorsey to appear before the panel on Feb 25.
The 31 member parliamentary panel, led by BJP’s Anurag Thakur, passed a resolution that they will not allow any representatives of the company to appear before them on behalf of the company, and that only the top executives shall appear before it”.
The panel in a official letter to the company on February 1, had summoned the CEO of the company to appear before it on Feb 7, which was later postponed for today, to seek his opinion on complaints about bias behavior of the company against right-wing handles on twitter. A right wing group had earlier protested against the micro-blogging site claiming that is suspends or bans accounts that are sympathetic toward the ruling BJP government and its allies.
Twitter had refused to attend the meeting with the panel citing “short notice of the hearing”.
However, the micro-blogging site had issued a statement and had clarified “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.
Twitter is yet to send a word out on whether its top-officials will appear before the panel on Feb 25.
The BJP had said that the refusal of the twitter to ignore its summon was an “insult” and that no agency in any country has the right to disrespect the institutions of that particular country.
“If Twitter is disrespecting the established institution of Parliament, then there are repercussions,” BJP spokesperson and New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi told reporters.
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Man arrested with Rs 2.54-crore heroin in Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): Police have arrested a man and seized over 500 grams of heroin worth Rs 2.54 crore in the illicit market from him in Mumbai, officials said on Friday.
The police's Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) made the drug seizure in Santacruz in the western suburbs. The operation was conducted by the Kandivali unit of the ANC on Thursday as part of a special crackdown against drug trafficking in the area, they said.
Acting on specific inputs, an ANC team conducted a raid in Santacruz (East) and intercepted a man. During a search, the team recovered 508 grams of high-grade heroin from his possession, an official said.
The seized contraband, a highly addictive, opioid drug derived from morphine, is estimated to be worth Rs 2.54 crore in the international market, he informed.
Following the seizure, a case was registered against the man under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and he was formally placed under arrest in the early hours of Friday.
The police are currently investigating the source of the drug and trying to identify the intended recipients of the consignment, he said.
