Facebook India appoints Sunil Abraham as new Public Policy Director for Data and Emerging Tech

Facebook on Monday announced the appointment of Sunil Abraham as the Public Policy, Director for Data and Emerging Tech. Abraham will “lead and shape” the company’s position on a variety of issues relating to tech policy in India.

According to Facebook, Abraham will help build partnership and engagements with key stakeholders in the public policy area of data privacy and consumer protection. He will also spearhead Facebook's efforts to build AI-based products and services.

“As part of the public policy leadership team, Abraham will contribute to important policy development initiatives and proceedings in India and the South Asia region on data protection, privacy, new and emerging tech and represent Facebook's position in these multi-stakeholder processes,” said Facebook in a release.

In case you did not know, Abraham is an industry veteran with almost a quarter-century of experience in Indian and global civil societies. In 1998, he co-founded Mahiti Infotech, an open technology service provider aimed at the non-profit sector. In 2008, he co-founded the Centre for Internet and Society, a non-profit policy and academic research organisation that focuses on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives.

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He 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, said Facebook in the release.

Abraham’s appointment comes at a time when Facebook is scrutiny in India over political bias, the spread of hate speech and fake news. Last month, Minister of Law & Justice, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the bias on the platform.

“I would like to point out that there have also been multiple instances recently where Facebook has been used by anarchic & radical elements whose sole aim is to destroy social order, to recruit people and to assemble them for violence,” Prasad wrote in the letter.

He also called out Facebook over the credibility of fact-checkers on the platform and cited the example of Covid-19 misinformation that had proliferated.

Facebook in its latest release reiterated that protecting people’s privacy has always been its central focus.

“For years, Facebook has been working to ensure that its users, advertisers, customers and partners enjoy the platform while keeping their data safe and secure. This holds true for the work that India is doing to strengthen its data protection regime and boost India's fast growing digital economy and develop norms for its digital society. Keeping users safety and privacy at top, Facebook will continue to work alongside governments and regulators to find the right solutions which serve both our mission and public interest,” it added.