Sandhya Devanathan’s move from Meta to OpenAI has largely been seen as another marquee executive joining the AI boom. But the timing of her departure, weeks after an extraordinary confrontation between Meta and the Indian government, and the conspicuous absence of India from her new OpenAI mandate raise questions that go beyond a routine Big Tech leadership move.
When Sandhya Devanathan announced on August 28 that she was leaving Meta after more than a decade, the public explanation was deliberately uncomplicated.
The former Vice President and Head of India and Southeast Asia described her departure as a “bittersweet decision”, thanked colleagues and reflected on a decade spent building Meta’s businesses across Asia.
Her next destination quickly became known. Devanathan is joining OpenAI as Vice President for Southeast Asia and Australia, based in Singapore and reporting to Kiran Mani, OpenAI’s Managing Director for Asia-Pacific.
On its face, this is a high-profile executive move in Asian technology.
But there is another question hanging over the transition.
Why is India missing from Devanathan’s new mandate?
That question becomes more interesting because of what happened at Meta in the weeks immediately preceding her departure.
Multiple senior industry executives familiar with the developments have privately raised questions with MartechAI about whether the escalating confrontation between Meta and the Indian government over content moderation, including during the Cockroach Janta Party protests and the temporary restriction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video, formed part of the backdrop to Devanathan’s exit.
MartechAI has not independently established that these controversies caused Devanathan to leave Meta.
The chronology, however, warrants scrutiny.
An unusually turbulent few weeks for Meta India
The controversy emerged amid the CJP-led student protests over examination paper leaks.
A video posted by Prime Minister Modi on July 23 addressing young Indians was temporarily restricted on Facebook on July 28. The post was subsequently restored.
The incident quickly moved beyond a routine content moderation dispute.
Meta said the content had been removed in error and restored. Joel Kaplan subsequently apologised to the Indian government, with the company attributing the restriction to an operational error.
But the explanation did not satisfy sections of the government and Parliament.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology summoned senior global Meta executives, including Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, according to The Indian Express.
The government wanted answers not only about the Modi video but also about Meta’s compliance with India’s technology laws, deepfakes and content moderation across its platforms.
The issue also reached Parliament.
At a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, Meta representatives faced questions about who authorised the removal, why the Prime Minister’s content had been affected and how the platform was applying its moderation policies.
The Modi-video episode unfolded against a broader period of regulatory scrutiny for Meta in India, including government concerns over harmful content, deepfakes, platform compliance and advertisements allegedly facilitating access to child sexual abuse material.
Meanwhile, another controversy was developing around the CJP protests themselves.
Reports emerged that some Instagram reels showing student protests had disappeared or been removed, with users questioning Meta’s moderation decisions. In one reported case, footage showing protesters with torn clothes was classified under rules concerning sexual content.
Separately, Hyderabad police registered cases concerning allegedly morphed and objectionable social media content targeting Prime Minister Modi during the protests.
Arun Srinivas, Meta’s Managing Director and Head for India, was among those named, alongside operators of Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Meta said it was cooperating with the relevant agencies.
This was not an ordinary month for Meta India.
It was a period in which Meta’s handling of content, moderation systems and platform governance was being scrutinised by law enforcement agencies, Parliament and the Union government almost simultaneously.
Where did Devanathan sit in all of this?
This is where the leadership question becomes important.
Devanathan was not running Meta India’s day-to-day business alone at this point.
Meta had appointed Arun Srinivas Managing Director and Head for India in 2025. Srinivas reported to Devanathan, whose responsibilities had expanded to cover India and Southeast Asia.
Yet Devanathan remained one of Meta’s most senior executives responsible for the region.
TechCrunch, reporting her departure, cited a person familiar with the matter as saying that Devanathan was involved in Meta’s decision-making process in India.
What impact, if any, did the confrontation between Meta and the Indian government have on the leadership overseeing one of the company’s most important markets?
And then comes the timing.
The Modi video was posted on July 23 and temporarily restricted on Facebook on July 28.
By early August, Meta’s representatives were appearing before parliamentary and government officials.
The company’s global leadership was drawn directly into the dispute.
On August 28, Devanathan’s departure became public.
Timing alone is not evidence of causation. Senior executive recruitment, particularly at this level, can take months, making it entirely possible that discussions between Devanathan and OpenAI began well before the July controversy.
That leads to perhaps the most important unanswered factual question in the entire story:
When did OpenAI first approach Sandhya Devanathan?
If negotiations were substantially advanced before July, the apparent connection becomes considerably weaker.
If discussions began or accelerated during the controversy, the chronology would merit closer examination.
Neither side has publicly disclosed that timeline.
Then there is the curious absence of India
The geography of Devanathan’s new role adds another layer.
At Meta, her portfolio covered India and Southeast Asia.
At OpenAI, it will cover Southeast Asia and Australia.
India has been carved out of her individual remit.
There is, however, an important structural explanation.
OpenAI appointed former Uber India and South Asia President Prabhjeet Singh as its Managing Director for India on June 26, before the controversy over Modi’s Facebook video and before Devanathan’s appointment was announced.
Singh is OpenAI’s senior-most executive in India, while Devanathan will be the company’s senior-most executive across Southeast Asia and Australia.
Structurally, therefore, there is a perfectly straightforward explanation: OpenAI had already created a standalone India leadership position before the controversy erupted.
But the juxtaposition is nevertheless notable.
One of the most prominent technology executives associated with India for the past several years is leaving Meta shortly after an intense government-platform confrontation and joining another global technology company in a position that specifically does not include India.
Is that merely the consequence of OpenAI’s organisational design?
Or did the prospect of moving away from responsibility for one of the world’s most politically and regulatorily complex technology markets make the new role more attractive?
The questions Meta and OpenAI still haven’t answered
The real story may therefore lie not in claiming to know why Devanathan left, but in establishing what remains unknown.
When did conversations between OpenAI and Devanathan begin?
Was the OpenAI position created before or after those discussions?
Was Meta attempting to retain her?
Did the events surrounding the CJP protests and the Modi video have any bearing on her decision?
Did she seek a role that did not include India?
Was the exclusion of India entirely a consequence of Prabhjeet Singh already being appointed?
And what exactly will Devanathan control at OpenAI in terms of budgets, teams, hiring and country leadership?
For now, one fact stands out.
Sandhya Devanathan entered 2026 as Meta’s Vice President overseeing India and Southeast Asia.
She is due to join OpenAI in October as Vice President for Southeast Asia and Australia.
India is the market that disappeared from her individual remit.
Whether that is simply an organisational coincidence, part of a much bigger career bet on OpenAI, or one consequence of a turbulent final chapter at Meta India remains the question worth asking.
Related Articles
