A Joint Committee of Parliament for Data Protection on Thursday grilled micro-blogging site Twitter asking why it has failed to take any action against supposed ‘comedian’ Kunal Kamra for making vile comments against country’s judiciary and the Chief Justice of India.
According to the reports, Twitter was questioned by the parliamentary panel for inaction against Kunal Kamra and asked why has not Twitter removed Kunal Kamra’s offensive tweets targeting the Supreme Court.
A joint committee of Parliament for Data Protection asks Twitter why it has not taken action against the tweets by comedian Kunal Kamra (in file pic) about the Chief Justice of India pic.twitter.com/2JOdKAOAzr
— ANI (@ANI) November 19, 2020
The social media giant’s policy head Mahima Kaul was summoned before the Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill headed by the BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi.
Speaking to Media, Lekhi said that Twitter said the post cannot be removed unless the court issues such orders. She further says, “We’ve asked for an answer in 7 days. Since there are no laws in India regarding these, we have to talk to the top executives of such service providers”.
We've asked for an answer in 7 days. Since there are no laws in India regarding these, we have to talk to the top executives of such service providers: Meenakshi Lekhi, BJP MP https://t.co/lWRHUE4UKK
— ANI (@ANI) November 19, 2020
The self-proclaimed comedian Kunal Kamra, known for his abusive behaviour on social media platforms, faces contempt cases over his vile tweets attacking the Supreme Court after it had granted bail to Republic TV chief Arnab Goswami in a 2018 suicide case.
The infamous comedian lost his cool when the Supreme Court of India granted interim bail to Arnab Goswami on 11th November. Kamra published a series of Tweets where he described the Supreme Court of India as ‘Supreme Joke of India’. As per the law, his tweets are subject to contempt proceedings.
Following that, several complaints were filed against him and a Mumbai-based lawyer Rizwan Siddiquee had also sought Attorney General KK Venugopal’s permission to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Kunal Kamra. Last week, Attorney General KK Venugopal had also granted his consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against far-left troll masquerading as a ‘stand-up comedian’ Kunal Kamra.
Not just pulled up for Kunal Kamra tweet, but Twitter had apologised to Parliamentary panel over misrepresentation of Indian map too
The questioning of Twitter over its alleged bias and inaction against left-wing Twitter handles comes even as Twitter is facing serious trouble in the country for distortion of Indian map by geo-tagging Ladakh as a part of China.
In October, while doing a Twitter Live session, security expert Nitin A Gokhale had noticed that his location was geo-tagged as ‘Jammu & Kashmir, the People’s Republic of China’. He was standing at Leh’s Hall of Fame, a war memorial for fallen soldiers in the Union Territory of Ladakh at that time. Taking cognizance of the issue, the Indian government issued a notice to Twitter on October 22 warning them to rectify the wrong geo-tagging.
In October, the Joint Committee of Parliament on Data Protection Bill had sent a notice to Twitter for showing Ladakh as part of China. It mentioned in the notice that the act amounted to treason and had sought an explanation in the form of an affidavit.
Twitter India’s representatives had met Lekhi and begged apology. However, their request was denied as the act was a criminal offence that “questioned the sovereignty of the country”.
Twitter has officially apologized for the geo-tagging mistake committed by the social media giant by showing Ladakh as part of China. The Parliamentary panel’s chairperson and BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi said that the committee had received a written apology from Twitter and the company has promised to rectify the geo-tagging issue by November 30.
The deposition from Twitter has come in the form of an affidavit signed by Twitter Inc’s Chief Privacy Officer, Damien Karein.
