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EXCLUSIVE For the @EconomicTimes, I write about Facebook's early lobbying days in India, between 2012 and 2014, led by its director of public policy â India, South Asia and Central Asia, Ankhi Das. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/inside-facebooks-early-days-of-lobbying-in-india-led-by-ankhi-das/articleshow/77603977.cms
The story is based on leaked internal memos, chats and emails found as part of court exhibits in a case in California's San Mateo County involving a developer named Six4Three LLC, which made 'Pikinis' â a now-defunct app that automatically found swimsuit pictures on Facebook.
These memos provide an inside glimpse of how Facebook lobbied (or for want of a better term, did "public policy") between 2012 and 2014, including meetings with union ministers like Kapil Sibal, then opposition leader (Rajya Sabha) Arun Jaitley, lobby groups and think-tanks.
Let's look at this July 2012 internal memo, sent by a global official which has updates on FB's policy activities in India. This memo features Ankhi Das' outrach with Kapil Sibal, MPs, drafting a letter that Jaitley would use on the intermediary rules, and think-tank CIS.
That memo also highlighted a significant achievement by Facebook, particularly Das and her team. Onboarding Pranab Mukherjee to its platform 24 hours after his swearing-in ceremony.
Now let's look at how Facebook's efforts regarding an early version of the privacy law, where Das engaged with members of the drafting committee. Think-tank CIS was preparing a "so-called" "consensus draft of privacy legislationâ which FB's team submitted a draft of comments to.
The questions I am expecting is:
Why now? How is any of this relevant? In the light of recent relevations by Facebook, I think it is an absolute matter of public interest to know how its public policy team functions. What has it done, what does it do, why is it so important.
Why now? How is any of this relevant? In the light of recent relevations by Facebook, I think it is an absolute matter of public interest to know how its public policy team functions. What has it done, what does it do, why is it so important.
Doesn't hurt looking back a little. If anything, it tries giving a complete picture of past practices. And these are based on documents that I chanced upon last year. If anyone wants to trawl through them, here's a link â https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/leaked-documents-show-facebook-leveraged-user-data-fight-rivals-help-n1076986
Also, who knew that a case involving a creepy swimsuit-detecting app would lead to a story about Facebookâs lobbying activities in India 
