Meta executive leaves for OpenAI as the social media giant faces growing scrutiny in India

Meta’s India and Southeast Asia vice president, Sandhya Devanathan, is leaving the social media giant to join OpenAI, the ChatGPT maker told TechCrunch.

Devanathan will be based in Singapore and report to OpenAI’s Asia-Pacific managing director, Kiran Mani. She will oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption and partnerships, regulatory engagement and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia, OpenAI said.

The executive is leaving Meta after more than a decade at the company, which has been the subject of growing scrutiny over issues such as online safety and content moderation. Devanathan was involved in the company’s decision process in the country, a person familiar with the matter said.

Devanathan’s appointment comes days after Prabhjeet Singh joined OpenAI as its India head. Singh had spent more than a decade at Uber, where he led its India and South Asia business.

OpenAI has been expanding its presence across the Asia Pacific, opening offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and Delhi over the past two years.

Following Devanathan’s departure, Meta’s India managing director, Arun Srinivas, will report directly to Benjamin Joe, the company’s vice president for Asia-Pacific, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

Devanathan joined Meta in 2016 and held several leadership roles at the company, including leading its Asia Pacific gaming business, before being appointed vice president for India and Southeast Asia in June last year.

Meta has faced growing pressure from Indian authorities in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the company apologized after Instagram mistakenly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July. The Indian government summoned Meta executives including its chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, over the incident.

New Delhi has also raised concerns over child sexual abuse material on the company’s platforms. Last month, the Indian government sought an explanation from the company after a BBC report found Instagram advertisements that allegedly offered access to such content.

Meta said in a blog post at the time that it had removed violating ads and accounts, and rejected suggestions that it knowingly targeted such advertisements at users based on inappropriate interests. The company also noted that it had removed 160,000 accounts in India over six months based on signals indicating child-exploitative activity.