Updated: November 20, 2020 7:19:48 am
Shashi Tharoor, Meenakshi Lekhi.
Twitter, the SOCIAL NETWORK giant, was once again in the crosshairs of the parliamentary committee on personal data protection led by Meenakshi Lekhi on Thursday. The panel asked representatives of the microblogging site why it did not delete comedian Kunal Kamra’s tweets about the Supreme Court and a judge, and sought an answer within a week.
The move was questioned by Shashi Tharoor, head of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology. “Dear @M_Lekhi, as far as I know, your Committee was formed for consultations on the Data Protection Bill and its mandate is to report on the legal provisions that continue in the bill. Could you clarify if you have assumed additional responsibilities and under whose authority? ”He tweeted.
Rajya Sabha MP from Congress Jairam Ramesh, who is a member of the Lekhi-led panel, agreed. “I was unable to attend today’s meeting, but if I had been there, I would have raised this very issue, Shashi Tharoor. This is not the first time this has happened, ”he tweeted.
Responding, Lekhi tweeted: “It is a parody that I have to respond to people who are busy showing their lack of understanding. I refuse to give legal tutorials specifically when Mr. Congress Party Lawyer Mr. Vivek Tankha was present on the committee and already agreed with me. “
Interestingly, Tankha questioned Twitter officials further at Thursday’s meeting. It is known that he asked how Twitter can allow the use of abusive language against a constitutional official. He told officials that India was a conservative society and does not tolerate disrespect for constitutional officials.
Last week, Attorney General KK Venugopal had consented to the initiation of criminal contempt of court proceedings against Kamra for his “highly objectionable” tweets about the Supreme Court and a judge. Kamra had posted the tweets on the day a Supreme Court vacation court granted Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami a provisional bond in alleged complicity in a suicide case. Kamra has made it clear that he does not intend to retract his tweets or apologize.
Previously, the panel had removed Twitter for wrongly showing Ladakh as part of China in its local setting. Twitter has presented an apology to the panel.
Speaking to reporters, Lekhi said: “It is shameful that Twitter is allowing its platform for obscene comments like that of comedian Kunal Kamra …”.
When contacted to get a reaction, a Twitter representative said: “We have no comment to share.”
.
