Facebook has tapped former journalist Natasha Jog as its election integrity lead for India, according to multiple persons aware of the development, thereby bringing an end to a search process that began nearly four months ago.
The New Delhi-based Jog will report to Katie Harbath, Facebook’s public policy director, global elections. Harbath is based out of Facebook’s headquarters in California. Facebook declined to comment for this story. ET could not reach Jog despite multiple attempts.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Jog was employed with New Delhi Television (NDTV) for more than eighteen years, across various roles. As of July 2018, when she quit the company, Jog was senior editor, special programming and senior anchor, while also looking after StartUp programming for four years along with heading education programming for the channel. Jog began her career at NDTV in 2000 as an anchor, news editor and reporter.
However, Jog is not the only hire Facebook is making in the run-up to the elections. It has also hired two more “seasoned” public policy professionals, who will look after politics and government. The two new hires, along with Jog, will oversee the Menlo Park-headquartered social network’s election integrity efforts in India.
Over the last two months, Facebook has been stepping up its election integrity efforts in India. It began with identity confirmation in December. Last week, it announced further steps relating to ad transparency, introducing two disclaimer categories and labels for political advertisers. The company said it would begin the enforcement of its policy later in February.
Last month, in an interview to ET, Harbath said that Facebook was “close” to filling the position, and had a more long-term view of the role, rather than restrict itself to the general elections. She said then, “So given the fact that we are still working on hiring, like right up through the elections. Because there are going to be issues after the elections. And then, you have the state elections.”
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