Twitter’s India Head Manish Maheshwari moving to US as Senior Director

Microblogging platform Twitter’s India Head Manish Maheshwari will move to the company’s United States office in the role of a Senior Director, Revenue Strategy and Operations, the social media giant confirmed in a statement on Friday.

The role is focused on new market entries for the company. 

“Thank you to @manishm (Maheshwari’s Twitter handle) for your leadership of our Indian business over the past 2+ years. Congrats on your new US-based role in charge of revenue strategy and operations for new markets worldwide. Excited to see you lead this important growth opportunity for Twitter,” wrote Twitter’s Japan and APAC head, Yu Sasamoto, in a tweet. 

The executive has been in the news recently, amid the social media platform’s tussle with the Indian government Maheshwari was asked to appear before the Ghaziabad Police in June, in relation to a case connected to the assault on an elderly Muslim man. The police issued a notice to the executive on June 21, asking him to report to the Loni Border police station. 

The Karnataka High Court had quashed this notice on July 23, but allowed the police to record his statement virtually or by visiting his office or residence.  

The social media giant had run into trouble with the Indian government, which accused the company of non-compliance with its new Intermediary Guidelines (IT Rules) recently. The rules came into effect on May 26 and require social media entities with over 5 million users to appoint Indian citizens in key compliance roles. 

While competitors Facebook, Google etc. made these appointments, Twitter originally failed to comply. The platform later appointed Dharmendra Chatur as its interim resident grievance officer, but he too resigned from the position less than a month after the appointment. The Delhi High court, on July 28, had also observed that the company was in “total non-compliance” of the rules. On August 11, the Centre told the court that Twitter had appointed the required individuals and “appears to be in compliance” with the rules.

Twitter isn’t the only company that has opposed the government’s new IT Rules though. Facebook-owned WhatsApp had filed a case against the government, opposing the traceability norms enforced by the rules. They require platforms to trace the first originator of a message within India. WhatsApp argues that this will break user privacy and require the platform to surveil its users. Three special rapporteurs from the United Nations had also written to the government, noting that the rules violate key international human rights treaties.

The platform has also run into trouble with both the ruling party and opposition for locking accounts of their members who violated its rules. Twitter had temporarily blocked ex-IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s account on June 25, and blocked key Twitter handles of the Congress party, including that of Rahul Gandhi earlier this month, after receiving complaints about posts that had been made from those accounts.