Parliament Panel questions Twitter on allowing Kunal Kamra’s ‘offensive tweets’ against SC

New Delhi, Nov 19: A parliamentary panel-led by BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi questioned social media giant Twitter for not removing stand-up comic Kunal Kamra's "offensive tweets" targeting the Supreme Court earlier this month.

Twitter's policy head Mahima Kaul was grilled by the Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill headed by Lekhi and Congress leader Vivek Tankha took the lead in questioning Twitter for keeping the posts.

"On Kunal's tweet, Twitter said that the post cannot be removed unless the court issues such orders," said Lekhi, on a joint parliamentary committee questioning Twitter regarding inaction against Kunal Kamra's tweet on CJI Bobde.

"We have asked for an answer in 7 days. Since there are no laws in India regarding these, we have to talk to the top executives of such service providers," she added.

Stand-up comic artist Kunal Kamra has refused to retract his controversial tweets against the Supreme Court or apologise for them, saying he believes they "speak for themselves".

Kamra's statement comes a day after 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.

Kamra, who was banned by several airlines after he heckled Goswami on an IndiGo flight earlier this year, said he enjoys a platform with a captive audience but a time slot before the Supreme Court is a scarce commodity and should go to more pressing issues in front of the nation.

He also referred to contempt proceedings against lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who had refused to apologise for his derogatory tweets and was held guilty of contempt earlier this year.