Twitter's India chief moves to U.S after facing criticism over compliance

Twitter Inc confirmed on Friday (August 13) that its India Chief, Manish Maheshwari, will take up a new internal role in the United States. This comes after months of a tussle between the U.S. giant and the Indian government over compliance issues.

According to the company's statement, Maheshwari will become Twitter's Senior Director of revenue strategy and operations focused on new market entry which will be based out of San Francisco. Twitter has given no particular reason for Maheshwari's move. 

New Delhi has repeatedly criticized Twitter in recent months for not swiftly complying with the country's new IT rules that required it to hire compliance officers by May. The U.S firm completed the required hiring and complied with the new rules this month, the government has said.

The new rules, which became effective end-May, are aimed at regulating content on social media and making firms act more swiftly on legal requests to remove posts.

Twitter also faced several ongoing police cases, with some naming Maheshwari, for allegedly hurting sentiments and promoting child pornography. He also had to seek court relief in at least one case where he was asked to appear for police questioning in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

Twitter's struggles in India, along with the regulatory scrutiny of other U.S tech firms such as Facebook's WhatsApp and Amazon, have hurt the business environment as a key growth market, prompting some companies to rethink expansion plans. 

(Agency Inputs)