IT panel tells Google, Facebook to comply with India’s rules on data safety

Global power houses Google and Facebook have been clearly told to strictly abide by the country’s norms on data privacy and data security and make sure they fulfil conditions put by the Government of India.

On Tuesday (June 29), Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, told the representatives of Google and Facebook that the government will not tolerate any shortcomings on their part in handling data safety and privacy.

The representatives of the two global companies were called over alleged misuse of social media and concerns over data security and privacy.

The personnel of YouTube and some other social media intermediaries will also be summoned by the committee soon.

India Today quoted sources to say that Google and Facebook were represented by two personnel each.

The meeting assumes significance because the Centre has been at loggerheads with social media companies, especially Twitter, over the latter’s resistance to complying with India’s new IT rules.

Also read: Twitter India appoints new officer, but no let-up in number of grievances

Twitter recently appointed its global legal policy director Jeremy Kessel as the grievance officer in India, a day after Dharmendra Chatur quit the post. But even there, the microblogging site found itself in trouble.

The appointment of California-based Hermy Kessel, however, is not in line with new IT rules. The new IT guidelines mandate that all nodal officials, including the grievance redressal officer, should be residents of India.