Facebook announced on Friday that Sunil Abraham has been appointed as the Public Policy, Director for Data and Emerging Tech. He is the co-founder and former Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society.
Facebook said Sunil Abraham will “lead and shape the company’s stance of tech policy issues” in the country, and will report to Public Policy Director Ankhi Das. “Sunil will be responsible for building partnerships and engagements with key stakeholders in the public policy area of data privacy, consumer protection, and AI led innovation for new products and services,” Facebook said in a statement.
Facebook said that he will be contributing to policy development initiatives and proceedings in India and the South Asia region on data protection, privacy, new and emerging tech and represent the company’s position in these multi-stakeholder processes.
"Sunil’s experience in the field of technology policy and his vast research on data reforms are an ideal fit for Facebook. We are thrilled to have Sunil in our team as he brings deep industry and civil society knowledge and understanding. With his expertise and experience, he will help us in our mission to build transparency, accountability and empowered communities,” said Public Policy Director Ankhi Das.
Ankhi Das was recently in the eye of the storm surrounding Facebook in India over not implementing hate speech policies for some politicians reportedly at the behest of Ankhi Das over hurting the company’s business prospects.
Apart from the Centre for Internet and Society, Sunil Abraham has co-founded open technology service provider Mahiti Infotech.
Sunil Abraham has been an advocate of the free/open source software and was a part of the Wikimedia movement starting in 2004, when he co-managed the International Open Source Network for UNDP. He was also an endowed professor at ArtEZ University for the Arts in the Netherlands.
The Centre for Internet and Society, a policy and academic research organization focusing on accessibility, openness. access to knowledge, internet governance, digital humanities and telecom regulation.