Amazon said its “subject matter experts are abroad.”
New Delhi:
Amazon has refused to appear before a joint parliamentary committee investigating the 2019 personal data protection bill, and this amounts to a “violation of the privilege of parliament,” sources in parliament told NDTV.
If Amazon does not appear before the panel on October 28, “an enforcement action will be initiated” against Amazon, the sources said. The US e-commerce giant said its “subject matter experts are abroad” and mentioned travel risks because of which they cannot appear.
The committee, which is scrutinizing the 2019 personal data protection bill, following concerns expressed by Congress, had called on all stakeholders, including Facebook and Twitter, for an overview.
“Amazon has refused to appear before the panel on October 28 and if no one on behalf of the e-commerce company comes before the panel, that amounts to a privilege violation,” said BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who heads the panel, to the PTI news agency. The panel has decided to send a notice of privilege if they don’t show up.
Meanwhile, top Facebook India officials appeared before the parliamentary panel today and were questioned for nearly two hours, sources in parliament said. Facebook India was represented by its director of public policy, Ankhi Das.
The Twitter officials’ presentation to the panel will take place on October 28, according to a notice issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat. Google and PayTM have been asked to appear before the panel on October 29.
Introducing the 2019 personal data protection bill in parliament last year, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it empowers the government to request anonymous personal data from companies, Facebook, Google and others. and not personal.
But the opposition Congress was concerned about the use of such data in some cases, especially when it comes to national security.
A section of legal experts had also pointed out the problem, saying the provision will give the government unaccounted for access to users’ personal data. The matter was subsequently referred to the joint parliamentary committee headed by Ms Lekhi.
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