WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose and Meta India public policy chief Rajiv Aggarwal resign

WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose and Meta India's public policy director Rajiv Aggarwal have resigned from their respective positions in the company. This comes a week after Ajit Mohan, head of Meta India, stepped down from his role in the company after roughly four years.

Meanwhile, the current public policy director of WhatsApp India Shivnath Thukral has been appointed as the director of public policy for all platforms owned by Meta India (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram). 

This comes against the backdrop of Meta announcing 11,000 layoffs globally or 13 per cent of its workforce.

“I want to thank Abhijit Bose for his tremendous contributions as our first Head of WhatsApp in India. His entrepreneurial drive helped our team deliver new services that have benefited millions of people and businesses. There is so much more WhatsApp can do for India and we’re excited to continue helping advance India’s digital transformation,” said Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp to Republic. 

According to Manish Chopra, Director, Partnerships, India - Meta, “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. He has also been leading proactive engagement with critical policy and regulatory stakeholders. We are grateful for his contributions and wish him very best for the future."

"We are also announcing the appointment of Shivnath Thukral as our Director, Public Policy for Meta in India. 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. We remain committed to our users in India and will continue to contribute meaningfully to the regulatory process that will enable everyone to harness the full potential of India’s digital economy,” Chopra added.

Earlier, the company officials went incommunicado soon after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made public a letter he had written to employees announcing the job cuts. Meta's rival Twitter had recently fired more than 90 per cent of its just over 200 Indian staff as part of a global reduction by new owner Elon Musk.

Interestingly, some of the Indian techies, who switched to social media major Meta after quitting their stable jobs just two-three days ago, are among the 11,000 people laid off by the company.

Meta lays off 11,000 employees

On November 9, Meta informed that 11,000 employees will be fired in a bid to reduce the size of its workforce by 13%. In a message to its employees, Facebook founder and Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg wrote, "Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history. I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1. 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 for those impacted."