House panel summons to Twitter CEO: Ex-IT minister Kapil Sibal takes a jibe

Kapil Sibal, former communications and information technology minister, questioned the rationale of a BJP MP-headed parliamentary standing committee on IT summoning top officials of microblogging site Twitter.

He alleged that the BJP, after having encouraged and patronised the trolls, was now targeting them for having turned against the ruling establishment.

“The parliamentary standing committee technically may have the right to summon Twitter officials, but I don’t understand the rationale and utility of this action,” Sibal told ET on Monday. “Twitter is a global platform and it acts against the trolls if there are any complaints made to it.”


Sibal, who was also a law minister in the erstwhile UPA government, accused the BJP of encouraging the trolls against its political rivals. “It is the BJP that originally encouraged, supported and patronised the trolls against its political rivals. Now the same BJP is targeting these very trolls because they have done the reverse swing and started targeting the BJP and the ruling establishment.” Twitter has come under fire from certain quarters for an alleged bias against right-wing groups. The standing committee on IT is headed by BJP’s LS MP Anurag Thakur and is dominated by NDA members. The standing committee summoned Twitter CEO to appear before it on February 25.