Facebook, Twitter to face parl panel on Jan 21, social media misuse in focus

A parliamentary panel has summoned representatives of Facbeook and Twitter to appear before it on January 21. During the meeting, the panel will hear their views on safeguarding citizens' rights and preventing misuse of social media.

The Standing Committee on Information Technology, chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, would hear the representations from 4:00 pm.

"Evidence of representatives of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and to hear the views of the representatives of Facebook and Twitter on the subject 'Safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space," read the agenda of the meeting circulated among MPs.

Both social media platforms had faced scrutiny by a joint parliamentary committee back in October over data protection and privacy concerns. The panel had summoned all stakeholders for presenting their views after apprehensions were raised by opposition party on the Personal Data Protection Bill.

Recently, the Facebook-owned instant messaging WhatsApp has been landed in a controversy over its newly proposed privacy policy. Earlier this month, WhatsApp users were informed that the platform was preparing a new privacy policy and terms, and it reserved the right to share some user data with the Facebook app.

That sparked global outcries and a rush of new users to competitor private messaging apps including Telegram and Signal. WhatsApp on Friday said it would delay the new policy launch to May from February, that the update was focused on allowing users to message with businesses, and that the update does not affect personal conversations, which will continue to have end-to-end encryption.

The messaging application has also launched a widespread ad campaign to allay users' reservations the proposed privacy policy. Earlier today, WhatsApp had put up WhatsApp Status - a four-part message - to address user concerns on privacy.

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