Fri, September 22, 2023
By Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Social media platform X's head of policy for India and South Asia, Samiran Gupta, has resigned, two sources said, a top departure that comes ahead of India elections and as the company fights a court battle with New Delhi over content removal.
Gupta was the most senior India employee for X, formerly known as Twitter, and responsible for "key content-related policy issues" and "defending Twitter's position with new policy developments and support in-country sales organization," according to his LinkedIn profile.
Gupta, who was designated as X's Head of Global Government Affairs for India and South Asia, declined to comment to Reuters. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gupta's tenure at X ended in September, according to Gupta's LinkedIn profile, which said he "enabled transition leadership for Twitter post acquisition by Elon Musk led X-Corp."
He had joined the company in February, 2022, eight months before Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter Inc.
X counts India as a key market, with around 27 million users. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government officials are regular users of the platform.
There are roughly 15 X employees in functions like compliance and engineering in India, said one of the sources, but Gupta was the only executive engaging with the government and political parties.
Interaction between X and government and party officials would intensify typically during the run up to polls, and a national election is due to take place in India next year.
X is appealing against an Indian court ruling that it had failed to comply with government orders to remove certain content, arguing it could embolden New Delhi to block more content and broaden the scope for censorship.
India in September told a court X is a "habitual non-compliant platform" and for years has not followed many orders to remove content, undermining the government's role.
(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Elon Musk keeps publicly begging celebrities to post on X and gets pouty if they choose other platforms
Katie Balevic
Sat, September 23, 2023
Elon Musk. ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk, the embattled CEO of X (formerly Twitter), keeps tweeting at celebs to use his platform.
Musk suggested Taylor Swift post her music on X and complained that Russell Brand was using Rumble.
Under Musk, X (formerly Twitter) has lost half its ad revenue and is bleeding users.
Elon Musk, the embattled CEO of X, formerly Twitter, is starting to look a little bit desperate.
While Musk has touted X's views and engagement numbers — as if to prove to the haters that everything is fine, just fine — it's actually been a rough year for the company. Twitter, now X, has lost half its ad revenue and a majority of its workforce since Musk bought Twitter in October 2022.
It's apparently so bad that he's now begging celebrities high and low to post to the recently rebranded platform.
In a reply to Taylor Swift's announcement earlier this week of the re-release of her album "1989," Musk replied on X: "I recommend posting some music or concert videos directly on the X platform."
Musk also bragged that Tucker Carlson, the primetime anchor who was fired from Fox News in April, had received more views since streaming episodes on X.
"Views for his episodes on X now exceed the population of the United States. Talk to Earth via X!" Musk tweeted.
Musk's platform has faced criticism over its view counts, however. They are not unique, meaning a single viewer could be responsible for multiple views if they look at a tweet repeatedly, Insider previously reported.
The CEO also seems to get publicly pouty if celebrities don't do his bidding. Musk threw his support behind British comedian Russell Brand, who was recently accused of sexual assault by several women. Brand denied the accusations in a video he shared on X the day before the investigation into the accusations was published.
Brand later took to Rumble, another social media platform, urging his fans to follow him there and support him "directly." This seemed to annoy Musk.
"It is rather disappointing that he is exclusively pushing Rumble when X has supported free speech just as much," Musk lamented in the replies.
A request for comment made to X was met with an auto-reply that read: "Busy now, please check back later."
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