Amazon India Refuses to Appear Before Parliament Panel Citing 'Experts Are Overseas'

• The joint committee of Parliament issued summons to all the Social media giants to discuss data protection.
• However, Amazon has refused to appear before the Joint Committee.

Social media giants have been issued a summons by a joint committee of Parliament on the issue of protection of data and its privacy, sources said on Thursday. Companies that are summoned include Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, PayTM, and Google.

However, Amazon has refused to appear before the Joint Committee, BJP MP and panel chief Meenakshi Lekhi told news agency PTI.

This decision of Amazon's letter expressing the inability to appear on 28 October shocked the committee members. The joint committee has taken it very seriously and decided that if they do not appear on the 28th, then coercive action may be initiated against Amazon, the sources said.

According to NDTV, Amazon has pointed out that their subject matter experts are overseas and cited risks of travel as the reasons for non-appearance.

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“Amazon’s refusal to appear before the Parliament committee amounts to a breach of privilege. Parliament committee (is) unanimous on the action by the government against Amazon for refusing to appear,” Meenakshi Lekhi, BJP MP, said.

While introducing the draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, in parliament last year, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it empowers the government to ask companies - Facebook, Google, and others - for anonymous personal and non-personal data.

Following this, the matter was referred to the Joint Committee of Parliament headed by Meenakshi Lekhi.

"Whosoever is required, an individual or an entity will be asked to depose before the panel on the issue of protection of data and its privacy, and their respective social media platforms will be thoroughly examined by the panel," news agency PTI quoted Meenakshi Lekhi as saying.

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