Ankhi Das, Facebook's head of public policy who was in the eye of a storm over an alleged bias in blocking of hate content on the social media platform, has quit the company.
“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 to PTI.
Mohan said she played an “instrumental role” in its growth and services. “She has been a part of my leadership team over the last 2 years, a role in which she has made enormous contributions. We are grateful for her service and wish her the very best for the future,” TechCrunch quoted him as saying.
Das worked with Facebook for nine years, before which she was director of public policy at Microsoft India.
Controversy over her role at Facebook began after the Wall Street Journal published a story claiming Das had opposed applying the company’s policies on hate speech to an Indian politician who called for Rohingya Muslims to be shot. The story alleged that Das told Facebook employees that punishing politicians from the BJP would hurt the company’s business prospects in India, which is Facebook’s biggest global market.
The issue became a political talking point, with the Congress accusing Facebook’s alleged “inaction” of destabilising India’s democracy. “More often than not Facebook takes no action and even worse allows objectionable content to continue despite being brought to notice," Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate had said at a press conference in August.
Facebook denied these allegations, but said it took allegations of bias seriously and wanted to make it clear that it “denounces hate and bigotry in all forms”.
BJP IT head Amit Malviya had also denied the charge that Facebook had a BJP bias, even going as far as to accuse Das of having links to the Trinamool Congress. In an opinion piece in Times of India, he wrote, “Adding to the long and questionable list of such high-profile appointments is Ajit Mohan, MD of Facebook India, who used to work with the Planning Commission during UPA days. Sidharth Mazumdar, another employee in Facebook’s public policy team, previously worked for Sonia Gandhi’s strategist and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, is known to have uncharitable views about the Prime Minister and other senior ministers. It is also well-known that Ankhi Das, the senior Facebook executive in Congress’s cross-hair currently, and head of Facebook’s public policy in India and South Asia, has her family aligned to the Trinamool Congress."
With inputs from PTI
