Samiran Gupta, the head of policy for India and South Asia at social media platform X, has resigned, as per Reuters. This significant departure occurs in the lead-up to India’s elections and amidst the company’s ongoing legal battle with New Delhi regarding content removal, as per the news agency.
Reportedly, Gupta held the highest-ranking position for X, previously known as Twitter, in India, and was tasked with overseeing “critical content-related policy matters” and “advocating for Twitter’s stance in response to evolving policies while supporting the local sales team,” as stated on his LinkedIn profile.
According to Gupta’s LinkedIn profile, his tenure at X concluded in September. His profile indicates that he facilitated the transition in leadership for Twitter following the acquisition by Elon Musk’s X-Corp. Gupta had joined the company in February 2022, just eight months prior to Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter Inc, adds the report.
X considers India a crucial market, boasting approximately 27 million users. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and various government officials are frequent users of the platform.
According to the same report, there are approximately 15 X employees in roles related to compliance and engineering in India. However, Gupta was the sole executive responsible for liaising with the government and political parties.
Interactions between X and government and party officials would typically increase in intensity during the lead-up to elections, and India is set to hold a national election next year.
X is currently in the process of appealing an Indian court’s ruling, which stated that the company had not adequately adhered to government directives to remove specific content. X argues that this ruling could potentially empower New Delhi to further restrict content and expand the boundaries of censorship.
In September, India informed a court that X is a platform that habitually fails to comply with directives, consistently disregarding numerous orders to remove content. This conduct has been seen as undermining the government’s authority and role.
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Updated: 23 Sep 2023, 01:50 PM IST
