OpenAI Hires Meta India VP Sandhya Devanathan as Scrutiny Mounts Over 160,000 Removed Accounts
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Aug 28
OpenAI Hires Meta India VP Sandhya Devanathan as Scrutiny Mounts Over 160,000 Removed Accounts
3 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Aug 28
Summary
Sandhya Devanathan is leaving Meta after more than a decade to join OpenAI in Singapore, where she will oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia.
OpenAI made the hire days after naming former Uber executive Prabhjeet Singh as India head, extending a two-year Asia-Pacific expansion that has added offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and Delhi.
Meta will have India managing director Arun Srinivas report directly to Asia-Pacific vice president Benjamin Joe after Devanathan’s exit, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The move comes as Meta faces rising pressure in India over online safety and moderation, including a government summons after Instagram wrongly restricted a Narendra Modi post and questions over ads tied to child sexual abuse material.
Meta has said it removed violating ads and accounts and took down 160,000 India-based accounts over six months based on signals of child-exploitative activity.