NEW DELHI: After speaking with Twitter officials for over three hours, the Parliamentary Panel on Information Technology on Monday asked the micro-blogging site to ensure that elections in India are free and fair and not influenced by foreign entities.
The panel also asked Twitter officials to engage more with the Election Commission and address issues on a real-time basis. “The Lok Sabha elections should be free and fair. There should not be the kind of complaints as in the US,” Anurag Thakur, chairman of the panel, said. Twitter has also agreed to appoint a nodal officer to work with the ECI.
Takhur informed that public policy heads of three other social media platforms — Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram — have been called to appear before the panel to discuss issues related to ‘safeguarding citizens’ rights on social/online news media platforms on March 6. It is expected that Joel Kaplan (Vice President — Global Public Policy) will represent Facebook as well as its group companies — WhatsApp and Instagram at the March 6 meeting.
Facebook India VP and Managing Director Ajit Mohan and Ankhi Das (Director Public, Policy and Programs India) will represent Facebook India.
Twitter, which was represented by Colin Crowell, global Vice President of Public Policy in the Monday’s meeting answered several questions put in by the panel.
(With inputs from PTI)