Meta executive leaves for OpenAI as the social media giant faces growing scrutiny in India

Following Devanathan’s departure, Meta’s India managing director, Arun Srinivas, will report directly to Benjamin Joe, the company’s vice president for Asia-Pacific, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

Devanathan joined Meta in 2016 and held several leadership roles at the company, including leading its Asia Pacific gaming business, before being appointed vice president for India and Southeast Asia in June last year.

Meta has faced growing pressure from Indian authorities in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the company apologized after Instagram mistakenly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July. The Indian government summoned Meta executives including its chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, over the incident.

New Delhi has also raised concerns over child sexual abuse material on the company’s platforms. Last month, the Indian government sought an explanation from the company after a BBC report found Instagram advertisements that allegedly offered access to such content.

Meta said in a blog post at the time that it had removed violating ads and accounts, and rejected suggestions that it knowingly targeted such advertisements at users based on inappropriate interests. The company also noted that it had removed 160,000 accounts in India over six months based on signals indicating child-exploitative activity.