General Election 2019 Is Nothing Less A Fight For Twitter Too

New Delhi: Twitter said it is taking a proactive approach with political parties to verify candidates, relevant party officials and elected officials on the website as the social media giant prepares to face a 31-member Parliament panel to present its views on "safeguarding citizens' rights on social/online news media platforms." India is one of its fastest-growing audience markets on Twitter around the world, says Colin Crowell, Global Vice President, Public Policy at Twitter.

'Policies are applied fairly'

"We are committed to surfacing all sides of the conversation as we enter the election season in this extraordinarily diverse cultural, political and social climate," Crowell said in a statement. "We have never been more passionate about our mission to serve our Indian customers and to protect and enhance the national conversation," he added.

Twitter does not formulate its policies based on a political ideology, Crowell added. "Every Tweet and every account is treated impartially. We apply our policies fairly and judiciously for all," said Crowell.

"Every Tweet and every account is treated impartially. We apply our policies fairly and judiciously for all,"

The House panel has summoned Twitter India along with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) officials for the meeting to be held on February 11 to examine the issue.

We are impartial- says Twitter

The Parliament's Standing Committee on Information Technology, headed by Anurag Thakur, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, will assess many aspects related to privacy and data security. Political parties themselves select the accounts to verify, following which, Twitter reviews these accounts to make sure they meet the verification standards of the company.

"Twitter verifies these accounts to empower healthy election conversations and to provide confidence that these public figures are whom they claim to be," the company added.