Meta’s head of public coverage in India, Shivnath Thukral, is leaving the social networking firm, almost three and a half years after becoming a member of, and simply months after his counterpart at Google stepped down.
Thukral spent over seven and a half years at Meta and took over as public coverage lead for the South Asian market — the corporate’s largest consumer base — in November 2022, after his predecessor Rajiv Aggarwal left.
“Having helped construct a few of the methods and processes, I do really feel it’s a good time to let the engine and the crew work on their very own. As my subsequent journey begins, I wish to acknowledge the work of my crew, which is the most effective in enterprise and one of many explanation why that is such a troublesome choice for me,” Thukral mentioned in a LinkedIn put up on Wednesday.
Thukral’s exit comes simply months after Meta received reduction in India over WhatsApp’s 2021 data-sharing coverage, which had earlier resulted in a five-year ban by the nation’s antitrust regulator. The corporate had warned that the antitrust ruling might drive the rollback of its options.
Nonetheless, Meta, which has the most important consumer base for Fb and WhatsApp, and the most important marketplace for its Meta AI utilization in India, nonetheless faces regulatory challenges because the nation strikes towards enacting its anticipated knowledge privateness guidelines that will require parental consent to serve kids.
Meta additionally faces criticism from Indian telcos, as WhatsApp has over 500 million customers within the nation, and a big phase of them makes use of the moment messaging service as a substitute of conventional telecom providers for speaking over textual content, voice, and video calls. Equally, WhatsApp is commonly criticized for not limiting spam on its platform in India, though the app did deliver adjustments that have been touted to limit unsolicited enterprise communication.
“It’s not a straightforward choice to make, however I really feel very assured that our coverage engagement with stakeholders is at a reputable and constructive juncture, and we will solely construct additional on that. There’s at all times extra to do, and I do know the crew is effectively geared up to navigate the waters effectively,” Thukral wrote.
Meta confirmed to TechCrunch that the corporate has not appointed Thukral’s substitute.
In February, Google’s coverage head, Sreenivasa Reddy, give up. Reddy had changed former Indian antitrust official Archana Gulati, who resigned in 2022 simply 5 months after becoming a member of.
Google has not but appointed a substitute for Reddy, and his exit occurred amid the search large’s antitrust circumstances within the nation, a few of that are but to be settled.
“Shivnath Thukral is leaving Meta to pursue new alternatives,” mentioned Kevin Martin, Meta VP and head of world coverage, in a ready assertion. “As a member of the India management crew, he performed a key position in navigating and shaping coverage and regulatory conversations and engagements that have been vital for the trade and Meta in India over the past 7.5 years. We thank him for his management and contributions, and need him effectively in his future endeavors,” he added.
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