Facebook, Google Hearing to Be Held on June 29 by Parliament Panel

Parliament Standing Committee on Information Technology is scheduled to hold a meeting on June 29 to hear the views of Facebook India and Google India on safeguarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social online news media platforms.

The Committee has called the representatives of the two IT giants to register their views 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.

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.

On Sunday, Twitter’s interim Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) for India stepped down from his post, as per sources.

As per the new IT rules, the new RGO has been appointed to address the complaints from Indian subscribers.

According to sources, Dharmendra Chatur who was recently appointed as the interim resident grievance officer for Twitter India has been stepped down from his post on Sunday.

However, Twitter India’s spokesperson denied to comment on this matter.

Meanwhile, on Twitter’s Help Centre page, the name of Grievance Officer for India is currently shown as Jeremy Kessel instead of Dharmendra Chatur.