After Twitter, Parliamentary Panel For IT Summons Google And Facebook On June 29

The Committee has called the representatives of the two IT giants to register their views on compliance of the new IT rules.

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New Delhi: After a battle with Twitter India over the implementation of the new IT rules and temporary dismissal of Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's account, Now the parliamentary panel of Information and Technology has now summoned the representatives of Facebook India and Google India on June 29 to hear their views on safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social online news media platforms.

The committee, headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, will hear the views of the two IT giants on the matter.

Earlier on June 18, the Committee had called Twitter to appear before the panel to give representation on how to prevent misuse of social media and online news.

Twitter has already lost legal protection in India when the government stripped it of its intermediary status. This means that Twitter will not be considered as a platform hosting people’s tweets but it will be editorially responsible for the content.

On June 20, India's permanent mission at the United Nations had clarified that India's new IT rules are "designed to empower ordinary users of social media" and that they were finalised after the government held broad consultations with civil society and other stakeholders in 2018.

The Central government has framed the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ('new IT Rules') and notified the same on February 25, 2021. The Rules have come into effect from May 26, 2021.