Facebook on September 21 announced the appointment of former IAS officer Rajiv Aggarwal as the director of public policy for India. Rajiv Aggarwal's resumé Most recently, Aggarwal served as Uber's Head of Public Policy for India and South Asia for just over a year. Before that, Aggarwal spent 25 years in civil services as an IAS officer. According to his LinkedIn profile, Aggarwal spent over 21 years as a Sub-Divisional Magistrate in Uttar Pradesh and 4 years as a Joint Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. In its press release, Facebook highlighted Aggarwal's role in steering India's first-ever national policy on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and in the digital transformation of India’s IP offices. "I’m thrilled that Rajiv is joining us to lead the Public Policy team. With his expertise and experience, Rajiv will help further our mission to build transparency, accountability, empowered and safe communities, all of which we recognize as our responsibility," Ajit Mohan, Vice President & Managing Director, Facebook India, said. A position that comes with a controversial history The role of director of public policy has been under increased scrutiny ever since Wall Street Journal last August published an exposé accusing Ankhi Das, former Facebook India’s top public policy executive, of showing favouritism towards the ruling party of India. Following BJP’s victory in the 2014 national election, Ankhi Das reportedly said “We lit a fire to his social media campaign and the rest is of course history.” Das also reportedly advised against the removal of some hateful…
