Facebook India's policy head Ankhi Das quits amid political controversy

Facebook Inc announced on Tuesday that the company's top lobbyist in India Ankhi Das has quit, in the midst of a controversy over how Facebook regulates and manages political content in the country.

Das was Facebook's public policy head for India, South and Central Asia. According to the company statement, Das stepped down to pursue public service.

Controversy erupted in August after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company had failed to apply hate-speech restrictions to some groups and individuals owing to the fear of damage to the company's business potential in the country.

The company had faced questions from employees internally a few weeks ago, in terms of how it regulates political content in its biggest market - India.

Reuters reported that Facebook India Head Ajit Mohan had defended the company's policies and Das' role in an internal community post.

The "article does not reflect the person I know or the extraordinarily complex issues we face every day that benefits from Ankhi and the Public Policy team's expertise," Mohan had written, as reported by Reuters.

Das had been central to Facebook's influence in the country since she joined the company in 2011, and was considered one of India's most influential corporate lobbying executives.

"Ankhi was one of our earliest employees in India and played an instrumental role in the growth of the company and its services," Facebook said in a statement which announced Das's departure.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, Facebook had failed to flag content coming from the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party and its affiliates that were "flagged internally''.

Das was reported by the WSJ as the one who spearheaded this bias in the company.