New Delhi : The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology plans to question major digital and social media platforms, such as X (formerly Twitter) and Meta that owns Facebook and Instagram, to examine whether their paid subscription models compromise net neutrality and consumer rights, panel chairman and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said on Tuesday.
He was speaking to the media after a meeting held on May 26, where members reviewed quality of service standards and equal internet access. Dubey specifically highlighted platforms like X that offer extra features to paying subscribers
“For example, if you give some money to ‘X‘, you get more freedom to write [character limit], and others get less freedom,” Dubey said.
He said this must be evaluated against India’s constitutional principles.
“We have to look after 140 crore people, (that) all of them should get equal rights. Right to Equality — this is decided by the Constitution,” Dubey asserted.
“Net neutrality is important, so that all consumers, the 140 crore people who use the internet, should get equal rights under Consumer Protection Rights,” he further said in an interaction with news agency ANI.
What Dubey referred to
While a standard, free account on X is restricted to 280 characters per post, a paid subscription, X Premium, removes this. This paid tier also grants subscribers the ability to format text with bold and italic lettering, undo or edit posts after publication, and utilise a dedicated article composer that completely removes traditional character constraints.
Paid subscribers also receive wider algorithmic visibility, meaning the platform prioritises their posts and pushes their replies to the top of public threads.
What panel is looking into
The parliamentary panel’s investigation otherwise extends beyond social media character limits to digital and telecom services.
The committee is also currently examining whether telecom operators favour postpaid subscribers over prepaid users, who constitute 90% of India’s market as per Dubey.
A report by ANI cited sources to say a private operator’s recent introduction of “network slicing” for postpaid users triggered immediate concerns over non-discriminatory internet usage, prompting a pending review by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Dubey clarified that the parliamentary panel has not yet arrived at any conclusions regarding such practices.
The briefing to the panel by the Department of Telecommunications and TRAI marks the beginning of an ongoing deliberation, with the committee scheduled to hold two to three more sittings in the coming weeks before finalising its official report on consumer protection and net neutrality.
