Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT summons officials of MeitY and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting today

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT has summoned the officials of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting today, July 6, 2021. The officials from these two ministries have been summoned today to gather evidence on safeguarding the rights of the citizens and prevention of the misuse of social media platforms and online news platform.

News agency ANI has tweeted about this information of summoning the officials of MeitY and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The ANI tweet said, “Officials of MeitY & Ministry of I&B summoned by Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT today to gather evidence on ‘safeguarding citizens’ rights & prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space’.”

Earlier, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology on the issue of the misuse of the social media platforms summoned officials from Facebook and Google on June 29, 2021. According to an ANI report, the officials from these companies appeared before the committee to put forward their views on safeguarding the rights of the citizens and prevention of the use of social media platforms and online news platforms. In addition to this, a special emphasis was also given to the security of women in the digital space. The panel chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had asked the officials of the social media sites to appear in-person on the issue.

A PTI report dated June 29, 2021, stated that the Parliamentary Committee on IT will also summon representatives of YouTube and other Social Media Intermediaries in the coming weeks over the issue. The Facebook and Google representatives were called days after Twitter officials deposed before the panel. In the meeting with Twitter, several members of the panel had categorically told Twitter that the rule of land is supreme not the social media platform’s policies. Zeebiz