Sunil Abraham is an Indian technology policy analyst and free software advocate, and the director of public policy at
Facebook India.
He was formerly an endowed professor at
ArtEZ University of Arts ArtEZ University of Arts ( nl, ArtEZ hogeschool voor de kunsten) is an art academy in Netherlands. ArtEZ combines several art institutes and art disciplines with branches in Arnhem, Enschede, and Zwolle. In its name the A stands for Arnhem, the E f ...
and the co-founder and executive director of the
Centre for Internet and Society. He is a board member of
Open Society Foundations
Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a Grant (money), grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the wo ...
. and an honorary steward at
Shuttleworth Foundation. He joined Facebook in October 2020 to lead their Public Policy division in India.
Career
In 1998, Abraham founded Mahiti, a company providing low-cost software services to the voluntary sector,
where he continues to serve as a board member.
Abraham was elected as an
Ashoka Fellow in 1999, and received the
Sarai FLOSS Fellowship in 2003.
He managed the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
'
International Open Source Network
The International Open Source Network has as its slogan "software freedom for all". It is a Centre of Excellence for free software (also known as FLOSS, FOSS, or open-source software) in the Asia-Pacific region.
IOSN says it "shapes its activities ...
from 2004 to 2007.
In 2008, he co-founded the
Centre for Internet and Society, a non-profit research organisation based in India.
Views
Abraham has spoken in favour of greater online
free speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...
,
digital privacy, and
net neutrality., He has criticized some of the aspects of
Aadhaar, the biometric-based unique identity system of India. He was an early proponent for a data protection law for India.
Bibliography
* ''Digital Natives with a Cause?: A Knowledge Survey and Framework'' (2009)
* ''Open government data study: India'' (2012)
* ''Government access to private-sector data in India'' (2012)
* ''Open standards'' (2008)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham, Sunil
1973 births
Mozilla people
Free software people
Living people
Scientists from Bangalore