Public policy head of Facebook, Ankhi Das, has resigned from the company. Ankhi was accused of being biased in curbing hate content on the social media platform. Ajit Mohan, MD of Facebook India gave information about this and said that Ankhi will now work for public service. She is one of the earliest employees to work for the company in India. She has played a key role to advance the company in 9 years.
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Ankhi was also the director of India as well as Facebook’s South and Central Asia. She has given this resignation at a time when the government recently summoned Facebook, Twitter and Amazon. Last week, Ankhi appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) of Parliament on the matter of hate speech. It is believed that Ankhi resigned even before she was dragged into this inquiry and controversies.
Ankhi appeared before the JPC
BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi was presiding over the Joint Committee of Parliament before which Ankhi Das appeared regarding Data Security Bill 2019. In the past, Facebook has been accused of promoting hate speech and political leanings. On these allegations, Facebook said that they are aware of the action in the matter of hate speech. Facebook had said that it does not look at any party or religion according to its policy and acts with impartiality.
Allegedly Supported BJP and Hindutva
Ankhi came into the limelight when her name was written in a report of ‘The Wall Street Journal’. It was written in the report that Ankhi does not allow action against the hate posts of BJP and leaders associated with Hindutva groups. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Ankhi’s role was to oversee the team, which decides which content to approve and not on Facebook.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook employees raised a case of inflammatory posts by T. Raja Singh. Raja Singh is a BJP MLA in Telangana and has often been in the news for making inflammatory statements. In this case, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi also alleged that Facebook is not removing such hate speech.