PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE AND SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES
Why in news?
- Recently, Parliament’s Joint Committee on Personal Data Protection Bill had summoned officials from facebook and twitter on issues of data protection and privacy.
DETAILS
- Joint Parliamentary committee on Personal Data Protection Bill headed by Meenakshi Lekhi had summoned Facebook representative. They were questioned on their advertisement model, its targeting of audiences, earnings, taxes and its model for data storage and transfer.
- Twitter officials were summoned for their misrepresenting India’s Ladakh as part of china in its geolocation feature. It is disrespect of India’s sovereignty and integrity.
- Amazon and Google officials can also be summoned by Parliamentary committee.
- Parliamentary committee on information Technology headed by Shashi Tharoor summoned Facebook executives over allegations that it did not apply hate speech rules equally on all political party’s leaders.
Issues with social media
- Privacy of individuals – Private data of social media users have been accessed by third party apps without user’s permission. It can contain sensitive information pertaining to individuals.
- Influencing Individuals choices – Social media companies and third party apps as in case of Cambridge Analytica map political leanings of individuals and try to influnence their electoral behavior through selected advertisements and news. Corporates also influence peoples choices regarding their product.
- Data Security – Data security of social media and online market companies are often compromised by hackers and millions of user’s data are stolen by hackers leaving users vulnerable to cyber-attack. Ex- Estimated 250 million profiles on Instagram, YouTube and tiktok have been exposed and data scraped by Hong Kong based company Social Data
- Location of servers – Data servers are located in foreign countries making it difficult for Indian agencies to regulate social media and take timely actions. Data localisation is supported by government for better social media regulation
- Issue of Hate speech – Hate speeches on social media may create communal tensions, vitiate social environment, impact elections, violate fundamental rights of others.
- Allegation of political bias – Social media companies have been accused of taking biased action against one political disposition and in favour of other in cases of hate speech, fake news etc.
- Issues of taxation – Earnings by social media by advertisements and other promotional offers and taxation on it lies in grey area and laws are not very clear on it.
Joint Parliamentary Committee
What is a JPC?
- A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) is set up to examine a particular bill presented before the Parliament, or for the purpose of investigating cases of financial irregularities in any government activity.
- The JPC is an ad-hoc body.
- It is set up for a given period of time and is aimed at addressing a specific issue.
Composition:
- In order to set up a JPC, a motion is passed in one House and supported by the other House.
- The committee’s members are decided by Parliament.
- The number of members can vary. There are twice as many Lok Sabha members as the Rajya Sabha.
Powers and Functions:
- A JPC is authorised to collect evidence in oral or written form or demand documents in connection with the matter.
- The proceedings and findings of the committee are confidential, except in matters of public interest.
- The government can take the decision to withhold a document if it is considered prejudicial to the safety or interest of the State.
- The Speaker has the final word in case of a dispute over calling for evidence.
- The committee can invite interested parties for inquiry and summon people to appear before it.
- The committee gets disbanded following the submission of its report to Parliament.
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION BILL 2019
- Applicability: The Bill governs the processing of personal data by: (i) government, (ii) companies incorporated in India, and (iii) foreign companies dealing with personal data of individuals in India. Personal data is data which pertains to characteristics, traits or attributes of identity, which can be used to identify an individual.
- The Bill categorizes certain personal data as sensitive personal data. This includes financial data, biometric data, caste, religious or political beliefs, or any other category of data specified by the government, in consultation with the Authority and the concerned sectoral regulator.
- Obligations of data fiduciary: A data fiduciary is an entity or individual who decides the means and purpose of processing personal data. Such processing will be subject to certain purpose, collection and storage limitations. Additionally, all data fiduciaries must undertake certain transparency and accountability measures such as: (i) implementing security safeguards (such as data encryption and preventing misuse of data), and (ii) instituting grievance redressal mechanisms to address complaints of individuals.
- Rights of the individual: The Bill sets out certain rights of the individual (or data principal). These include the right to: (i) obtain confirmation from the fiduciary on whether their personal data has been processed, (ii) seek correction of inaccurate, incomplete, or out-of-date personal data, (iii) have personal data transferred to any other data fiduciary in certain circumstances, and (iv) restrict continuing disclosure of their personal data by a fiduciary, if it is no longer necessary or consent is withdrawn.
- Grounds for processing personal data: The Bill allows processing of data by fiduciaries only if consent is provided by the individual. However, in certain circumstances, personal data can be processed without consent
- Social media intermediaries: The Bill defines these to include intermediaries which enable online interaction between users and allow for sharing of information. All such intermediaries which have users above a notified threshold, and whose actions can impact electoral democracy or public order, have certain obligations, which include providing a voluntary user verification mechanism for users in India.
- Data Protection Authority: The Bill sets up a Data Protection Authority which may: (i) take steps to protect interests of individuals, (ii) prevent misuse of personal data, and (iii) ensure compliance with the Bill. It will consist of a chairperson and six members, with at least 10 years’ expertise in the field of data protection and information technology. Orders of the Authority can be appealed to an Appellate Tribunal. Appeals from the Tribunal will go to the Supreme Court.
- Transfer of data outside India: Sensitive personal data may be transferred outside India for processing if explicitly consented to by the individual, and subject to certain additional conditions. However, such sensitive personal data should continue to be stored in India. Certain personal data notified as critical personal data by the government can only be processed in India.
- Exemptions: The central government can exempt any of its agencies from the provisions of the Act: (i) in interest of security of state, public order, sovereignty and integrity of India and friendly relations with foreign states, and (ii) for preventing incitement to commission of any cognisable offence (i.e. arrest without warrant) relating to the above matters.
- Processing of personal data is also exempted from provisions of the Bill for certain other purposes such as: (i) prevention, investigation, or prosecution of any offence, or (ii) personal, domestic, or (iii) journalistic purposes. However, such processing must be for a specific, clear and lawful purpose, with certain security safeguards.
- Offences: Offences under the Bill include: (i) processing or transferring personal data in violation of the Bill, punishable with a fine of Rs 15 crore or 4% of the annual turnover of the fiduciary, whichever is higher, and (ii) failure to conduct a data audit, punishable with a fine of five crore rupees or 2% of the annual turnover of the fiduciary, whichever is higher. Re-identification and processing of de-identified personal data without consent is punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, or fine, or both.
- Sharing of non-personal data with government: The central government may direct data fiduciaries to provide it with any: (i) non-personal data and (ii) anonymised personal data (where it is not possible to identify data principal) for better targeting of services.
CONTROVERSIES REGARDING SUMMONING SOCIAL MEDIA EXECUTIVES
- Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology,Shashi Tharoor , has been accused of violating Committee rules when he wrote to Facebook asking it to appear before the committee.
- It has been argued that Tharoor did not follow the rule that an order signed by the Secretary-General of Lok Sabha is required to summon a witness.
- The committee has the powers to send a letter to Facebook — or any institution — asking it to appear and give an explanation on a subject. The committee or chairman does not have executive powers, but calling a particular person or an institution as witness is possible. An invitation to appear before a Parliamentary Committee is equivalent to a summons from a court: If one cannot come, he or she has to give reasons which the panel may or may not accept. However, the chairman should have the support of the majority of the members. Any member can call for a meeting to discuss this, and if the majority of the members do not agree, the chairman may have to cancel the summoning.
CONCLUSION
- Parliamentary Committees are considered an extension of Parliament and do a good deal of legislative business as both Houses of Parliament have limited time. Committees should work in unbiased manner and not become arena for political slugfest. Accountability and transparency in social media must be ensured by parliamentary committees.
Joint Parliamentary Committee
What is a JPC?
- A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) is set up to examine a particular bill presented before the Parliament, or for the purpose of investigating cases of financial irregularities in any government activity.
- The JPC is an ad-hoc body.
- It is set up for a given period of time and is aimed at addressing a specific issue.
Composition:
- In order to set up a JPC, a motion is passed in one House and supported by the other House.
- The committee’s members are decided by Parliament.
- The number of members can vary. There are twice as many Lok Sabha members as the Rajya Sabha.
Powers and Functions:
- A JPC is authorised to collect evidence in oral or written form or demand documents in connection with the matter.
- The proceedings and findings of the committee are confidential, except in matters of public interest.
- The government can take the decision to withhold a document if it is considered prejudicial to the safety or interest of the State.
- The Speaker has the final word in case of a dispute over calling for evidence.
- The committee can invite interested parties for inquiry and summon people to appear before it.
- The committee gets disbanded following the submission of its report to Parliament.