“Ankhi has decided to leave his position at Facebook to pursue his interest in public service,” said Facebook Managing Director India Ajit Mohan.
Facebook’s chief of policy in India, Ankhi Das, who was at the center of the controversy over the alleged bias of the social network in favor of the ruling government led by Modi and the violation of its own hate speech policy in India, resigned from the company.
Also Read: Facebook’s Ankhi Das Posts Show Political Bias, New Report Says
In a statement, Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director of Facebook India, said: “Ankhi has decided to leave his position at Facebook to pursue his interest in public service.”
“Ankhi was one of our first employees in India and has played a critical role in the growth of the company and its services over the past nine years. She has been part of my leadership team for the past two years, a role in which she has made tremendous contributions. We are grateful for his service and we wish him the best for the future, ”he added.
The move also comes shortly after Ms Das’s appearance before the Joint Committee of Parliament that is examining the data protection bill.
Also read: FIR registered in Chhattisgarh against Ankhi Das, two Facebook users
The controversy over the role of Facebook and Ms. Das in failing to adequately control hate speech on the platform, and the political bias in India, began more than two months ago, when a report published by The Wall Street Journal alleged that the company violated its own hate speech rules to favor some people, including those associated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after Ms. Das’s intervention. The report said that, according to Ms Das, punishing violations by ruling party politicians “would damage the company’s business prospects in the country.”
This was followed by another newspaper report stating that Ms Das had shown support for the BJP in recent years through posts on a Facebook group for employees, while disparaging opposition parties. The report said that in one of the messages, published the day before the BJP won the 2014 national elections, Das wrote: “We set his campaign on fire on social media and the rest is, of course, history.”
Also read: Facebook India’s director of public policy files a police report for threats and offensive messages on social media
Recently, it was also reported that he apologized to his colleagues for sharing an anti-Muslim post on his Facebook page that called Muslims in India a “degenerate community”.
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