Follow India's rules,House panel tells facebook, google

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology on Tuesday directed social media platforms Facebook and Google to comply with new IT rules and follow rules of the country. Led by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, the committee was hearing the views of the companies about safeguarding the rights of the citizens and how to stop the misuse of social media. While Facebook was represented by its country public policy director Shivnath Thkural and general counsel Namrata Singh, Google sent Aman Jain and Gitanjali Duggal for the meeting.

Facebook officials in their response to the committee cited the company's rules prohibiting officials to attend meetings in person during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and said the officers could not attend the meeting. However, panel chief Shashi Tharoor turned down Facebook's request to attend the meeting virtually. Facebook and Google representatives were called days after Twitter officials deposed before the panel.