Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, top officials decline to appear before Parliamentary Committee

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and top officials of the social media giant has reportedly declined to appear before the Parliamentary Committee on IT. The House panel had summoned Dorsey and his senior colleagues to explain the allegations of bias against it. The Twitter officials were supposed to present their case on February 11. The committee had also summoned Twitter India officials on the issue of safeguarding citizens' rights on social media, panel head Anurag Thakur said. On February 3, members of Youth for Social Media Democracy had protested outside the office of Twitter India. The protesters alleged that Twitter has acquired an anti-right-wing attitude. "They block our accounts and impressions of the tweets. We won't tolerate this." The protesters had insisted Twitter to change its policy.

Earlier on Friday, Twitter India had issued a statement regarding the allegations of bias.

“There has been a lot of discussion about Twitter and political partisanship in India in recent weeks and we'd like to take this opportunity to set the record straight. In 2017, we asked our most passionate users what they love most about Twitter and what they shared was powerful. They said that Twitter lets them see what’s happening from every point of view, all perspectives, every side.  This ability to see every side of a topic makes Twitter unlike any other service in the world -- and it’s something we work hard to cultivate and protect,” the statement said.

“Twitter is a platform where voices from across the spectrum can be seen and heard. We are committed to the principles of openness, transparency, and impartiality. …Our product and policies are never developed nor evolved on the basis of political ideology.” It added.

Prior to this, WhatsApp, which has over 200 million monthly active users in India, said that some of the proposed government regulations for social media companies are threatening the very existence of WhatsApp in its current form.

With 2019 Lok Sabha Elections just months away, the government had warned social media platforms of strong action if any attempt was made to influence the country's electoral process through undesirable means.