Indian IT panel hears from Google, Meta, X, Snapchat

Senior officials from major social media companies and the Indian government appeared before a parliamentary committee in New Delhi on Monday, August 3, 2026, for a high-level discussion on the regulation of digital platforms. The meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, chaired by BJP member Nishikant Dubey, focused on issues of online safety, data privacy, and public order.

Representatives from Snapchat, Google, X (formerly Twitter), Meta (Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram), and YouTube attended the session. They were joined by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan and S. Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The committee's agenda centered on three core areas: ensuring digital safety for women and children, safeguarding data privacy for farmers, rural residents, labourers, and the general public, and assessing how platforms comply with government rules concerning law and order.

The parliamentary hearing follows a series of recent incidents involving Meta. Last week, MeitY summoned the company's global team after a Facebook post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefly restricted. In the post,...