Parliamentary panel grills Twitter over 'obscene' tweets by Kunal Kamra targeting SC, CJI

New Delhi: A parliamentary committee questioned Twitter on Thursday over the recent "obscene" tweets by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra targeting the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India (CJI), and sought reply from the social media giant over the matter within seven days, said the panel's chairperson Meenakshi Lekhi.

This came close on the heels of Twitter apologising in writing to the same parliamentary panel for wrongly showing Ladakh in China and promising to correct the error by the month-end.

Twitter India representatives deposed before the Joint Committee of Parliament on Data Protection Bill on Thursday. "It is shameful that Twitter is allowing its platform for obscene remarks like the one by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra against the Supreme Court and the CJI," Lekhi told reporters.

"Twitter is allowing its platform to be misused for abusing top constitutional authorities, such as the Supreme Court and CJI. When Twitter was asked that what kind of posts are removed, it said that when the vulgar terminology is used, such posts are deleted. We then asked why the post of Kunal Kamra was not removed and they said that the court order has not come to us. We asked if they need an order to remove the other posts? We asked what is your authority and sought a reply on this within 7 days," Lekhi said.

She said members of the committee across the political spectrum, including Congress MP Vivek Tankha, BSP MP Ritesh Pandey and BJD MP Bhatruhari Mahtab, grilled Twitter representatives on this issue.

Lekhi also said that explanation of Twitter about banning handles and tweets was found to be inadequate. 

Meanwhile, Kamra has refused to retract his controversial tweets against the Supreme Court or apologise for them, saying he believes they "speak for themselves".

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Earlier, Attorney General K K Venugopal consented to the initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against him for a series of tweets following the apex court giving interim bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.