E-commerce giant Amazon has refused to appear before a Joint Committee of Parliament looking into the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 on the grounds that its “subject matter experts are overseas” and that there are travel risks.
Taking it very seriously, the Committee has warned that if Amazon does not appear before the panel on October 28, “coercive action will be initiated” against it.
“The panel is unanimous in its opinion that coercive action can be suggested to the Government against the e-commerce company,” said panel head Meenakshi Lekhi, reacting to Amazon’s non-cooperative stand.
“Amazon has refused to appear before the panel on October 28 and if no one on behalf of the e-commerce company appears before the panel it amounts to breach of privilege,” she added.
The Committee is looking into the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, following concerns expressed by the Congress. It has called all stakeholders, including Facebook and Twitter, to get an overview. The Committee is trying to seek “oral evidence” on the issues of data protection and privacy.
Facebook officials gave their presentation before the panel on Friday while Google, Twitter and Paytm have to do so on October 29. Facebook’s public policy head Ankhi Das appeared before the Committee and was asked some tough and searching questions by the panel, sources said.
According to sources, the MPs asked many questions and clarifications about how the foreign company can ensure data protection and privacy and their responsibility to Indian agencies. The joint committee has 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.
Recently, the Congress had accused Facebook of favouring the ruling BJP by ignoring the hate speeches of its leaders. It had written to Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg to investigate allegations that the social media company’s India team ignored hate speech policy to avoid ruining its relationship with the BJP. It had based its allegations on a report of the Wall Street Journal. The social networking major had refuted the allegations.
Incidentally, the BJP also accused Facebook of bias. Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote to Zuckerberg saying in the run up to 2019 General Elections in India, there was a concerted effort by Facebook India management to not just delete pages or substantially reduce their reach but also offer no recourse or right of appeal to affected people who are supportive of the right-of-centre ideology. “I am also aware that dozens of emails written to Facebook management received no response. The above documented cases of bias and inaction are seemingly a direct outcome of the dominant political beliefs of individuals in your Facebook India team,” he alleged.
