Shubham Sawarkar
Ajit Mohan, the head of Meta Platforms India, has left the company after four years to join rival Snap, the companies announced on Thursday, marking a high-profile exit for Facebook‘s parent company in its largest market.
Mohan has stepped down with immediate effect, and Manish Chopra, Meta India’s director and head of partnerships, will serve as interim CEO, according to a Meta spokesperson.
According to a Snap spokesperson, Mohan will join Snap as president of Asia-Pacific and will report to Chief Operating Officer Jerry Hunter.
His departure comes as Facebook faces a slew of regulatory challenges in India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has tightened laws governing Big Tech firms.
For years, the company has faced criticism for doing little to combat the spread of fake news and hate speech in India.
During Mohan’s time in office, Meta dealt with increased pressure from Indian authorities to regulate content, including the hiring of local nodal officers and the pursuit of a peer-to-peer payments license for the WhatsApp messaging app.
As of November 2021, Facebook had nearly 450 million users in India, while WhatsApp had 563 million users.
Meta will work on a transition plan over the next few weeks, and Vice President for Asia Pacific, Dan Neary, will be in India “soon” to host an all-hands meeting, according to Nicola Mendelsohn, Vice President of Meta’s global business group, in an internal message to employees.
