By Monika Samtani and Emily Montague

“Advocating led me to the law, and articulating from the margins is what attracted me to policy.” ~Palak Sheth

Ever since she was young, Palak Sheth has been representing, advocating, and taking action when it comes to what’s important to her and her community. Today as the Head of Privacy Policy at one of the biggest tech companies in the world, Palak continues her mission to push culture forward, and develop products in a safe and equitable way at Instagram.

Palak Sheth, Head of Privacy Policy, Instagram PHOTO: The EveryGirl Mag

Q: First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us and share your voice with The Fem Word.

To start us off, tell us a bit about your life before becoming an expert in your field — what was your childhood like, and how did it influence your ideas about technology, policy, and the way these things impact our daily lives?

I moved to the US from India with my parents when I was one year old. Being an immigrant raised by immigrant parents, I gained a unique perspective on being "American" while also looking through an "outsider" lens. When I was growing up in the 80s, the idea was always to “fit in” not just for survival but to thrive. The concept of embracing our Indian culture and weaving it into the fabric of American culture wasn’t really discussed as a strategy for how to “fit in.” Yet, that’s exactly what we did. I grew up representing my South Asian culture through dance, advocating for my religion, Jainism, and our vegetarian lifestyle, and vocalizing the importance of sharing our story to help make our community more conscious and inclusive.

Advocating led me to the law, and articulating from the margins is what attracted me to policy.

Palak (far right) with the Women of Instagram PHOTO: The EveryGirl Mag

I constantly found myself in a position of advocating for something that was important to my community and me. Advocating for better vegetarian options at school. Advocating for more women leaders and icons to be taught in class. Even advocating for left-handed scissors and desks to be regularly available in classrooms! This is what led me to want to go to law school and continue advocating on behalf of the under-represented and often overlooked communities. I’ve leveraged my 12-year public interest legal career, focusing on issues ranging from constitutional law to consumer protection, to work on privacy and public policy issues at one of the biggest tech companies in the world.

Now, as Head of Privacy Policy for Instagram, I advocate for developing products in a safe and equitable way for a company that encourages people to not “fit in” but instead to push culture forward by being uniquely [themselves].

Q: You used to be pretty involved in the south Asian dance scene - in fact, you were a founding member of the Best of the Best South Asian national dance competition.

What do you do for fun now? Are you still involved in dance, or do you have newer hobbies to pursue?

Dance is my forever passion. It’s the way I feel most alive and most definitely my artistic expression of choice. Up until the pandemic, I actively kept dance in my life, either through post-college dance teams that I started or tried out for (shout out to GotSoul NY, Doonya Performance Dance Company in DC, and Nachle SF) or through teaching a Bollywood dance-fitness class in SF weekly for 5 years.

At the beginning of COVID, I shifted my weekly classes to virtual, both on IG Live and Zoom. After some time (and a move back to the Midwest), I stopped teaching online and have been taking a hiatus since.

Since I’ve stepped back from dance, my new(ish) hobbies include cooking, strength training, and walking around Chicago listening to podcasts.

Q: In your line of work, technology isn’t seen as a good vs. bad, black-and-white idea. Social media policy occupies what we’d probably call a neutral area, which just means that it’s up to the people who design our platforms to do so responsibly.

How can individuals like you or me encourage social media platforms to think more broadly about their impact on our lives?

“I advocate for developing products in a safe and equitable way for a company that encourages people to not “fit in” but instead to push culture forward by being uniquely [themselves].”

~Palak Sheth, Instagram

At Instagram, part of my role is to be part of an internal review counsel, which really shows the company’s dedication to actively thinking about their consumers.

Before working at Instagram, I managed the Affirmative Litigation Task Force, a team of lawyers at the San Francisco City Attorney's office along with law students from Yale Law School that were part of a dedicated clinic charged with identifying companies that practiced unlawfully, unfairly, or deceptively. I was hired because of my experience putting consumers first and my commitment to striving for a more inclusive and just civil society, both on and offline.

While I am confident that my fellow policy colleagues at Meta and across [the] tech [industry] care deeply about social media positively impacting society, I also understand that this is not the perception externally. Similar to other sectors, government, corporate, or otherwise, policymaking is never purely black or white. Most come with certain tradeoffs, and it’s in balancing these tradeoffs within a finite amount of resources that we find ourselves asking the hard questions and creatively coming up with the best resolutions. We strive to develop platform policies that provide a safe experience for users while mitigating harm. And to the extent possible, giving our users transparency and control over their experience.

Q: Congratulations on celebrating the 5-year anniversary of ‘Post March Salon’, your organization to inspire women to engage in and sustain activism!

One issue you’ve spoken about is low voter turnout, and you’ve worked on several bipartisan initiatives aimed at improving it.

**In your experience, what kind of social-media-based initiatives have the biggest effect on potential voter engagement and voter turnout in general?**

There is, in my opinion, no better tool to increase voter turnout and participation than social media. It can serve as a source of information, a tool to pressure (in a healthy way) your social graph to get engaged and take action and empower people to understand that each individual vote, collectively, will have a massive impact.

We’ve seen this through charitable giving and fundraisers. Contributing $5 through traditional means may have felt limited and unimpactful. But when 200,000 people unite to support a cause on a social platform, it’s unifying and empowering to see $1M raised to advance popular ideas. This is the power of social media. Action, even seemingly small actions, done collectively with people from around the world yields impact beyond what we’ve ever been able to accomplish before.

One of the social-media-based initiatives that has had considerable impact mimics something we’ve used for in-person voting - the “I voted” sticker. Our IG sticker effects are helpful to motivate and make people aware of elections.

Q: What’s your vision for the future of social media? What does that future look like, and how will it be experienced by individual users?

Today, social media has democratized voice, helped small businesses grow, and connected people from around the world. Social media, like the internet, has the opportunity to be a space that offers a more level-playing field for the marginalized. It can connect people who identify similarly but don’t have the opportunity to engage with each other in their daily lives. Small businesses can target their products to niche demographics that would otherwise be undiscoverable without a personalized ads system. It can, and has, brought awareness to issues some oppressed communities face that mainstream media has never recognized.

Without an intentional effort to continue to strive for fairness and equity, social media, like society, can also lead to greater disparity.

As we turn towards the future, social media and technology will advance into more immersive experiences like the metaverse. It is our responsibility to build products with fairness, equity, and inclusion in mind. A virtual world where accessibility for all is at the forefront, and articulating from the margins is the norm.

My vision for the future of social media is that it is used responsibly and with balance. That the first mobile-first generation grows up to develop technology in a way that can resolve societal issues, reclaim user trust and understanding of how their information is being used, and thoughtfully consider user choice.

**Q: There’s one question we ask all of our guests here on TFW, and we feel it’s one of the most important questions any woman can be asked: when have you felt truly powerful?**

I have felt truly powerful when I’ve successfully connected people to do good. Whether that good was pushing culture forward through events like Best of the Best Indian Dance Competition or through bringing women together to engage in politics consistently and build community through shared values.

THIS ARTICLE WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY OUR PARTNERS AT FOUMBERG, JUNEJA, ROCHER & CO.! THANK YOU FOR EMPOWERING WOMEN LEADERS THROUGH OUR PLATFORM.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the interviewee, and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Fem Word organization. Any content provided by our interviewees are based on their opinions and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.

Palak Sheth: Instagram's Head of Privacy Policy On Advocating For What’s Important In All That She Does