What To Ask Jack?
A Rundown on Issues Surrounding Twitter
2018 was the year social media executives took the hot seat. Executives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google appeared in front of the US Congress for gruelling sessions. They were held answerable for a number of issues surrounding social media, including Russian election interference, political bias and user privacy concerns.
2019 is not offering any respite.
On February 5 an Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, led by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, summoned the Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for a hearing scheduled on February 11. This came after two weeks of strong protests by right-wing activists accusing the company of political bias. Executives from the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters did not appear citing a “short notice”, and instead published a separate blog post addressing the issue. This did not bode well with the committee, but the hearing has been rescheduled to February 25.
The issues plaguing Twitter in India are not different than those they face in the US, or any other country for that matter. Here are the most pressing issues, along with measures taken by Twitter to address them and suggestions for the Standing Committee on what to ask CEO Jack. While this article focuses on Twitter, most of these issues apply to all the social media…
