India To Ask Twitter To Go Silent During 48 Hours Ahead Of General Election

On Monday, a parliamentary panel asked Twitter bossed to ensure support for freedom and fairness in 2019 Lok Sabha elections (aka General Election) on its platform as well as it’s not accused of politically motivated practices or bias. According to guidelines of ECI (the Election Commission of India), the social network will probably be ordered to go silent for a full course of 2 days in election areas.

In addition, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology told Twitter to meet with officials of Election Commission so that it can guarantee real-time compliance with the Commission’s guidelines to achieve fair and free elections.

Global Vice President Colin Crowell of Twitter’s Public Policy deposed before the Parliament Committee whose head was BJP MP Anurag Thakur. It took approximately three and a half hours to finish the meeting. As revealed by sources, the vice president was able to provide answers to some questions while promised to come back to answer the other questions within 10 days.

General Election

Responding to reporters, Thakur emphasized the importance of freedom and fairness in general elections. He also said that there had better not complaints like in the United States surfacing. He said that Twitter executives have been required to talk with Election Commission to ensure constant compliance.

The meeting takes place after the submission of a complaint against Twitter for anti-rightwing bias. Executives of Technology have presented themselves before US lawmakers due to accusations of activity to impact politics on their platform, which was also relating to user privacy.

Previously, the parliamentary standing committee on IT has officially summoned WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, according to a report earlier this week. In particular, top executives at these companies are asked to present themselves before the bench on March 6. The panel describes the agenda for the meeting in a notification, as reported by Business Standard, saying:

In addition, the panel orders the three companies to bring their CEOs or members of the global team as representatives.