Facebook India's Policy Head Ankhi Das Quits

Facebook India's policy head, Ankhi Das, has resigned from her position in the company. She was the public policy director for India, South and Central Asia. Das has stepped down  to pursue interests in public service, the company said in a statement.

An alumni of Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, Das recently appeared before a joint parliamentary committee on October 23. The various tech companies were called by Meenakshi Lekhi over data privacy issues. Here are more details on that meeting.

Facebook's India head of public policy Ankhi Das quits, says company

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 27, 2020

Ankhi Das is one of Facebook's oldest employees in India. She was among the first to join the company here and also present at Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg's India visits. As public policy head, her role included liasioning with the government, politicians and other policy representatives. She was with Facebook for 9 years and helped build the company's large presence here.

"Ankhi has decided to step down from her role in Facebook to pursue her interest in public service. Ankhi was one of our earliest employees in India and played an instrumental role in the growth of the company and its services over the last 9 years," Ajit Mohan, Managing Director India of Facebook, said in an e-mailed statement.

Facebook's Das was recently in a controversy that erupted after The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported that she had opposed applying hate-speech restrictions to some Hindu nationalist individuals, implying she was biased towards right-wing outfits. More details on that report here.