A senior official from twitter anounced that Public Policy Director for India and South Asia, Mahima Kaul, resigned from her post in January to focus on her personal life. She is said to continue in her role till March end.
“At the start of this year, Mahima Kaul decided to step down from her role as Twitter Public Policy Director for India and South Asia to take a well deserved break. It’s a loss for all of us at Twitter, but after more than five years in the role we respect her desire to focus on the most important people and relationships in her personal life. Mahima will continue in her role till the end of March and will support the transition,” Monique Meche, Vice President, Twitter Public Policy, said in a statement.
India is the third largest market for the micro blogging company in the world after the United States and Japan. The platform has millions of users in the country including leading actors, sports personalities, government officials and top politicians.
The centre last week sent a strongly worded letter to the company for “unilaterally” unblocking around 250 accounts that had been tweeting with an objectionable hashtag over the ongoing farmers’ agitation. The Twitter handles had been tweeting or retweeting “fake and provocative tweets”, according to the government.
The centre, in its letter, said the company had declined to “abide or obey the order issued by the Government of India”.
The central authorities said that the social media company “cannot assume the role of court and justify non-compliance, it further added, “Twitter being an intermediary is obliged to obey the directions as per satisfaction of authorities as to which inflammatory content will arouse passion and impact public order. Twitter cannot sit as an appellate authority over the satisfaction of the authorities about its potential impact on derailing public order”.
Tweeples reacted heavily on the sudden resignation of Mahima Kaul and started the trend #MahimaPleaseDontGo
https://twitter.com/RamHolkar/status/1358679488033288195
Mahima please don’t go #MahimaPleaseDontGo #MahimaPleaseDontGo pic.twitter.com/CtX1mJ39st
— Piyush Mishra (@PMLUCKNOW) February 8, 2021
@TwitterIndia our voices are being censored, silenced but @misskaul always stood with the truth but now after her resignation it seems hard to raise our voices against fascism in our country.@_garrywalia #MahimaPleaseDontGo pic.twitter.com/B5rb2AfbtA
— Jasmeen Kaur Bhullar (@Jasmeen2694) February 8, 2021
People seem sad Twitter India policy head Mahima Kaul has resigned
Was wondering who was trending #MahimaPleaseDontGo
To see it's users like national spokesperson Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP)
And an Ex- National Executive Member Samajwadi Party pic.twitter.com/csXibzqOrR
— Regina Dulanjali (@ReginaDulanjali) February 8, 2021
Such a shame. A platform designed to amplify public voices is having to gag its own. #MahimaPleaseDontGo
— Sammy (@rjsammy07) February 8, 2021