Despite the Mark Zuckerberg-led social media giant facing international censure for the humungous power wielded with almost no responsibility and virtually a jurisdictional tabula rasa given the still nebulous digital law benchmarks, justice is a long way off. Resignations, such as that by Ankhi Das, a cog in the wheel of the sprawling State-corporate nexus that is the social media system in countries like India, are merely cosmetic readjustments. In fact, there’s unapologetic irony in Das stepping down from Facebook to “pursue public service”, as the note from Ajit Mohan, the managing director of Facebook India, said. With assembly elections in West Bengal less than a year away, the Bengali Hindu techno-savvy face of global female entrepreneurship can be useful to BJP, to say the least. Her administrative utility at Facebook India, telling internal moderators at Facebook that taking down hate posts by BJP legislators and other party members would not suit the company’s immense market interests and profit-motives in India, certainly could be rewarded with an afterlife of offline gain. Ankhi Das exiting Facebook wouldn’t change a thing, given that Shivnath Thukral, WhatsApp’s public policy director in India, has been asked to take up the interim role. Thukral’s even closer ties to the ruling BJP and his working with the party during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that rode Modi to power, too, are well known.
Annie Domini, 'Ankhi Das Stepping Down Is an Eyewash: Facebook Won't Change its Ways', Leaflet
