Committee headed by Shashi Tharoor rejects Facebook's offer

New Delhi, Saturday 19 June 2021

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) has rejected a request for a virtual meeting from social media company Facebook. Facebook quoted Corona as requesting a virtual meeting instead of a direct meeting of the parliamentary standing committee headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

Sources said the Information Technology (IT) Committee has also proposed vaccinations to Facebook officials coming for a meeting with the panel. The date for this meeting has not been announced yet. The committee also decided that all other social media and web platforms such as YouTube, Google, etc. should be present before the panel in person.

Responding to the committee, Facebook said its officials could not appear before the committee directly because the company's rules did not allow officials to attend any meetings in person during the second wave of the Coro epidemic.

For this reason Facebook officials have decided to join virtually. Seeing this response from Facebook, the committee has now taken a tough stance. All members of the committee made it clear that no meeting could take place online and Facebook officials would have to be present.

The chairman of the technology committee has asked for a list of Facebook executives that the company wants to send to the committee. The chairman said the committee would vaccinate such officers and give them enough time to appear before the committee. Company officials declined to comment when asked about Facebook's stance on the parliamentary panel's decision.