New Delhi: The government warned Twitter of repercussions on Saturday after its top officials, including CEO Jack Dorsey, refused to appear before a 31-member Parliament panel to present its views on safeguarding citizens' rights on social media and news media platforms in view of this year's General Elections, sources in the committee said. The panel, led by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, had summoned the social media giant through an official letter to attend the meeting on February 11 to examine the issue.
The meeting was previously scheduled for February 7, but was later postponed to Monday to allow Dorsey and other top officials more time to attend the meeting. The "short notice of the hearing" was the reason Twitter gave for declining to appear, although they were given 10 days to travel, sources said.
The letter sent by the Parliamentary panel to Twitter on February 1 says that "it may be noted that the head of the organisation has to appear before the committee. He/She may be accompanied by another representative."
Vijaya Gadde, the social media giant's global lead for legal, policy, trust and safety, sent a letter to the Parliamentary IT Committee on February 7 saying "No one who engages publicly for Twitter India makes enforcement decisions with respect to our rules for content or accounts in India."
Twitter plans to verify these accounts to bring about healthy election conversations and to provide confidence that these public figures are who they claim to be, the company said.