Facebook top India lobbyist Ankhi Das has quit, months after a newspaper report suggested the way the social media network regulated political content in its biggest market by users favored Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party.

The company said in a statement that Das, who was Facebook’s public policy head for India, South & Central Asia, had decided to step down to pursue her interest in public service.

Facebook and Das drew criticism from left-leaning opposition lawmakers after The Wall Street Journal newspaper in August reported that she had opposed applying hate-speech restrictions to some Hindu nationalist individuals and groups, fearing damage to Facebook’s business prospects.

The matter also prompted Facebook employees to question whether proper content regulation policies were being followed in India, leaving the company battling a public relations and political crisis.

Das was considered among India’s most influential corporate lobbying executives and had been central to Facebook’s rise in India since joining the company in 2011.

Das’s departure comes as Facebook, along with other technology companies, is preparing for stringent new regulations India is drafting on data storage and privacy, which industry executives say could potentially hit foreign companies.

"Ankhi has decided to step down from her role in Facebook to pursue her interest in public service. Ankhi was one of our earliest employees in India and played an instrumental role in the growth of the company and its services over the last 9 years," Ajit Mohan, Managing Director India of Facebook, said in an e-mailed statement.

Das was called by a Joint Committee of Parliament last week where she was grilled about political content on the social media platform as well as Facebook's stand on data protection bill.

She was questioned for two hours and asked some tough and searching questions by the panel members from across the political spectrum, sources said.

During the meeting, a member suggested that the social media platform should not draw inferences from the data of its users for commercial benefit of its advertisers or for electoral purposes, they said.

The MPs also sought to know the revenue Facebook generates from India and what percentage of the revenue is spent on safeguards for data protection, sources told PTI.

The panel also asked how much tax the social media giant pays in India, they said.

During the meeting, concerns were also raised about the allegations that majority of the employees of the social media giant in the United States were inclined towards one specific political party of the country.

Meanwhile, Facebook said that the data protection law has potential to propel the country's digital economy and global digital trade.

Source- The Mint