WhatsApp head, public policy director in India quit as Meta churn continues

Days after Ajit Mohan, the vice president and managing director of Meta India, announced his departure from the company, Meta India has confirmed the resignations of two other senior executives. Abhijit “Bobby” Bose, the head of WhatsApp India, and Rajiv Aggarwal, the public policy director of Meta India, have resigned from the company. 

The development was reported by the Indian Express.

Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, thanked Bose for his “tremendous contributions” as the “first Head of WhatsApp in India”. “Rajiv Aggarwal has decided to step down from his role at Meta to pursue another opportunity,” Manish Chopra, Director, Partnerships, Meta India, said in a statement to Newslaundry. The company didn’t specify where Aggarwal is heading next. 

Shivnath Thukral, currently the public policy director for WhatsApp India, will now be the public policy director for Meta India. Meta will look for Bose’s replacement to head WhatsApp India. 

“In his new role, Shivnath will define and lead important policy development initiatives across our apps – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – in India,” Chopra said. 

It is understood that Bose and Aggarwal had tendered their resignations before Meta announced 11,000 global job cuts on November 9. While Bose has already served his notice period, Aggarwal will continue at Meta for a few more weeks. Mohan’s resignation, on the other hand, came into immediate effect since he joined Meta’s rival Snap as a senior executive to oversee the APAC region. 

Bose had joined WhatsApp in November 2018 to build the messaging service’s first full country team outside California. Aggarwal, a former IAS officer, had joined Facebook in September 2021. He had earlier headed the public policy team at Uber India. 

Thukral had joined Facebook as the public policy director in November 2017 but shifted to WhatsApp in March 2020. He had previously been the managing director at Carnegie India, headed the corporate branding and strategic initiatives at the Essar Group and served as the managing editor at NDTV Profit. 

This churn in Meta India’s public policy team comes at a crucial time. The Personal Data Protection Bill is expected to be released tomorrow for consultation by IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Meta has not had the best track record when it comes to safeguarding users’ privacy, to say the least. In addition, the IT Ministry will release details of its first grievance appellate committee by November 30, as per a PTI  interview with union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.