In a fresh round of top-level exits, WhatsApp India Head Abhijit Bose and Meta India Director of Public Policy Rajiv Aggarwal have resigned from their positions at social networking giant Meta. While Shivnath Thukral has been assigned the role of Public Policy Head at Facebook, it is not clear who will be replacing Bose at the company.
“Rajiv Aggarwal has decided to step down from his role at Meta to pursue another opportunity. Over the last year, he has played an important role in leading our policy-led initiatives in areas such as user-safety, privacy and scaling up programs like GOAL to drive digital inclusion in the country,” said Manish Chopra, Director, Partnerships, India – Meta.
“Shivnath has been an integral part of our Public Policy team since 2017. In his new role, Shivnath will define and lead important policy development initiatives across our apps – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – in India,” Chopra added.
The company has appointed Shivnath Thukral as its new director for public policy in India, a Meta spokesperson confirmed.
Meta India country head Ajit Mohan quit the company earlier this month.
These developments at WhatsApp and Facebook’s parent firm Meta show how deeply impacted is the company due to economic challenges and tought liquidity conditions in the United States. Meta recently laid off more than 11,000 employees, which is 13 per cent of its total workforce, citing a steep slide in digital ad revenue and profit. According to Wall Street Journal, in his latest meeting with senior executives, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to have confirmed “broad cuts” across the company.
Zuckerberg took accountability for letting go of 11,000 employees and said he is “sorry” for the actions and acknowledged difficulties for employees on a visa and expressed support to them.
In his post, he added, “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.” The mass layoff is the first broad head-count reduction to occur in Meta’s (earlier Facebook) 18-year history. The Facebook and Instagram parent company reported over 87,000 employees (as of September).
