Raheel Khursheed (born 26 July 1983) is an Indian journalist and business executive. He has worked for CNN-IBN, Times Now, and

Radio Kashmir All India Radio Srinagar (AIR Srinagar) is a public radio station operating in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. All India Radio Srinagar broadcasts in Kashmiri, Urdu and Hindi languages. Formerly known as Radio Kashmir Srinagar, it was renam ...

, but is most noted for being the Head of News, Politics and Government for Twitter India from 2014 to 2018. He also did a brief stint as a Country Expert for

Snap Inc. Snap Inc. is an American camera and social media company, founded on September 16, 2011, by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown based in Santa Monica, California. The company developed and maintains technological products and services, ...

's business in India.

Early life and education

Khursheed was born in Anantnag, in a remote part of

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

, described as a place where a national daily would reach two days past its publication date. He did his BSc from local government degree college, and further did his master's degree in communication and journalism from

Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication Symbiosis International (Deemed University), is a multi-campus private deemed university located in the city of Pune, India. The university has more than 30 academic institutions spread over various campuses in Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, In ...

Career

Khursheed's first job out of university was with CNN-IBN at their Noida office in 2006, where he wrote bylines, mostly on Indian politics and society. In 2009, he returned to Kashmir and joined Times Now's Srinagar Bureau as an editor. He hosted a western music programme for four years on

. Khursheed joined Mercy Corps to help train young journalists, and

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

where he learned how to do a digital campaign and used Twitter for the first time. He coordinated a petition on

Change.org Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...

against the

2012 Delhi gang rape The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South West Delhi. The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 22-year ...

, and served as director of communications for India for the organization. In January 2014, it was announced that Khursheed would take over as Head of News, Politics and Government for Twitter India, where he was responsible for providing technical support to news, government, and political users of Twitter, solving their problems, by escalating issues to internal support and policy teams. He was the brainchild behind creation of several technologically related products including ''Twitter Seva'' (addressing redressal of grievances), ''Twitter Samvad'' (initiative to bring digital government into masses) and ''SmartFeed'' (disaster response system). In July 2018, Khursheed resigned from Twitter India. He then joined Snap, Inc. where he was given the title of Country Expert in India.

Recognition

Khursheed's work has received recognition by several institutions around the world. In 2017, he was awarded the Knight Visiting Nieman Fellowship by Harvard University, the Yale World Fellows at Yale University. He was listed among

Asia Society The Asia Society is a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and around the world (Hong Kong, Man ...

's 2017 class of Asia 21, a network of young leaders. In 2018, he was a Draper Hills Summer Fellow at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Controversy

Khursheed's appointment to Twitter drew some backlash from several right wing groups for his criticism of Narendra Modi's handling of the Gujarat riots. The Hindu right wing media also accused Khursheed of political bias in verifying Twitter accounts.

References

External links

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Video: Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of product policy and counterterrorism, was interviewed by Raheel Khursheed on 23 October 2017, as part of ISP Speaker Series.
The event was co-sponsored by The Center for Global Legal Challenges and the National Security Group at Yale Law School. {{DEFAULTSORT:Khursheed, Raheel Indian male journalists 1983 births Living people People from Anantnag People from Jammu and Kashmir Kashmiri people