Parliamentary Panel Summons Twitter For A Hearing On Data Security, Citizens’ Privacy

The Parliament’s Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has summoned Twitter India officials for a hearing on Friday (August 26), a day after a former Twitter executive alleged that the social media giant hired an Indian government agent.

In a notice, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said that the panel would “hear the views of the representatives of Twitter India on the subject ‘Citizens’ Data Security and Privacy’”.

A Washington Post report on Tuesday said Peiter Zatko, the former head of security at Twitter, alleged that the Indian government forced the social media company to put one of its agents on its payroll, with access to user data when there were intense protests happening in the country.

In the complaint filed in July with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice, Zatko also said that Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal was “lying” when he earlier tweeted that the company was “strongly incentivized to detect and remove as much spam as we possibly can”.

It is pertinent to note in this context that the government and Twitter are at loggerheads over a host of issues, with the social media company having filed cases in the courts against the government on some matters. 

Recently, Twitter took the Indian government to court seeking to overturn some of its content takedown orders. A few days before that, the IT Ministry alleged that Twitter did not comply with the IT Rules, 2021, and if it failed to do so within a stipulated time, its ‘intermediary’ status would be revoked.

Other big tech firms such as Google, Amazon, Meta, Netflix, among others, are also facing regulatory scrutiny in the country on various issues.

Meanwhile, there are also reports that the Centre is planning a legislation to regulate data collection and data usage policies of the tech giants.

Separately on Tuesday, another parliamentary committee grilled the top executives of big tech firms on their alleged anti-competitive practices.

Besides Twitter, the standing committee has also summoned representatives of the Indian Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) for a briefing on the subject of ‘Citizens’ data security and privacy’.

Earlier this month, IRCTC floated a tender to hire a consultant for monetising passenger data for generating revenue. However, the PSU’s move raised concerns on data security and privacy in the absence of a data protection law in the country.

It must be noted that the government recently withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2021, which was expected to soon be passed as law. Except for a few landmark court judgments, India currently doesn’t have any law for any data privacy-related issues.