Facebook: Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director, India, South and Central Asia quits

Facebook’s Public Policy director Ankhi Das has decided to step down from her role. She will pursue her interest in public service. In a press release, Facebook India’s Managing Director said, "Ankhi was one of our earliest employees in India. She has played an instrumental role in the growth of the company and its services over the last nine years.

Meanwhile, Ankhi Das in a post announced her decision to step down and said,

"After nine long years, I feel that my mission has largely been met. Thank you, Mark, for creating something beautiful for the world. I hope I have served you and the company well. I know we will be in touch on Facebook."

Das had joined Facebook in 2011. The social media giant has started gaining in global scale and was also expanding in India back then. 9 years later, Ankhi Das leaves the company with immediate effect.

Ankhi Das in controversy

The departure, that Facebook portrays as a routine exit, comes after she faced allegations of meddling with Facebook’s content moderation policy in order to favour the governing dispensation. The controversy surrounding Das and Facebook began following an August 14 report in the Wall Street Journal.

The report said that Das intervened to stop Telangana BJP MLA T Raja Singh from ban from the social media site over possible fallout for the company’s business interests in India. Another report on August 30, WSJ said Das had previously disclosed her working with PM Modi and had claimed to have “lit a fire to his social media campaign” before he swept to power in 2014. Weeks after these reports, Singh was banned permanently from Facebook.

While the Congress seized on the Das controversy to claim that the BJP was forcing companies to allow hate speech to exist, the BJP cited content takedowns to allege a liberal bias that was behind the silencing of right-wing voices. Last week Das appeared before a parliamentary panel over another matter - concerns over data privacy.

Moving forward

Shivnath Thukral will replace Ankhi Das. He was the managing director of Carnegie India. He also oversaw operations, including coordination with Carnegie’s global network and fundraising.