A Facebook Executive In India Was Shielding Anti-Muslim Speech. Now She Wants Police Protection.

“Since the evening of 14 August 2020, I have been receiving violent threats to my life and body, and I am extremely disturbed by the relentless harassment meted out to me by the accused persons,” Das wrote in her police complaint. “The content, which even includes my photograph, is evidently threatening to my life and body and I fear for my safety as well as that of my family members. The content also maligns my reputation based on a news article and I am subjected to name-calling, cyber bullying and [sexual harassment] online.”

As of Tuesday morning, some of the tweets seemed to have been deleted, but some of the Facebook accounts behind the abuse were still active. Das’s Instagram account was also targeted by people calling for her to be hanged.

“Even women’s rights groups and the feminists won’t be able to save you if you don’t mend your ways,” one of the threats on Facebook said in Hindi.

Anyesh Roy, who heads the Delhi Police’s cyber crime department, did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.

Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone declined to comment for this story, but shared an earlier statement that didn’t specifically name Das.

“We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position or party affiliation,” he said.

One of Facebook’s top policy executives outside of the US, Das is tightly connected to the BJP, helping oversee one of the company’s most important and populous markets with more than 300 million users. A 2016 Guardian article about Facebook’s controversial internet access program, Free Basics, which India banned in 2016 for violating net neutrality, described her as enjoying “uncommonly good access in Delhi’s corridors of power.”

Former employees who worked with Das directly in the past and who did not wish to be named described her to BuzzFeed News as a “tough boss.” For years, Das and her team operated nearly independently of the rest of the company in the country, reportedly working out of a $40,000-a-month collection of suites in a five-star hotel in central Delhi, miles away from Facebook’s Indian headquarters in the city of Gurgaon.

“She’s a strong personality,” a person familiar with Das told BuzzFeed News. “She may not be the easiest boss to work with, but I do think her words carry a fair bit of weight within the company.”

“She’s actively involved in Facebook’s business decisions in India,” another person familiar with Das’s work said.

People close to Das who spoke to BuzzFeed News under the condition of anonymity said that keeping politicians happy was part of her job.