Facebook on Monday announced the appointment of Sunil Abraham as the director-public policy for data and emerging tech. He will lead the company's stance on tech policy issues in India.

Reporting to Ankhi Das, public policy director, Facebook-India, South & Central Asia, Abraham will be responsible for building partnerships and engagements with key stakeholders in public policy area of data privacy, consumer protection, and AI-led innovation for new products and services.

He joins Facebook from ArtEZ University for the Arts in the Netherlands where he spent a year as endowed professor.

On the appointment, Facebook's Das said, "Sunil's experience in the field of technology policy and his vast research on data reforms are an ideal fit for Facebook. With his expertise and experience, he will help us in our mission to build transparency, accountability and empowered communities."

Abraham has almost a quarter century of experience in Indian and global civil societies. In 1998, he co-founded Mahiti Infotech, an open technology service provider for the non-profit sector, and in 2008, he co-founded the Centre for Internet and Society, a policy and academic research organization focusing on accessibility, access to knowledge, internet governance, digital humanities and telecom regulation. He has been an advocate of the free/open source software and was part of the Wikimedia movement starting in 2004 when he co-managed the International Open Source Network for UNDP.

Abraham's appointment assumes importance as Facebook has been dealing with multiple incidents relating to hate speech and vile content both on the social media platform as well as its messaging platform WhatsApp in India. Recently, it has also been accused of favouring ruling party politicians to protect business interests in its biggest market.