Who is Sudhir Krishnaswamy? The only Indian on Facebook's oversight board

Image: nls.ac.in

Social media giant Facebook has announced the names of 20 members for its independent content oversight board and the only Indian named in the list is Sudhir Krishnaswamy -- Vice-Chancellor of the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru.

Krishnaswamy is part of the team, which includes former judges, journalists and human rights activists among others, will review appeals from users on material that has been taken down from Facebook and Instagram, and make binding content decisions for the social networking platforms.

Who is Sudhir Krishnaswamy?

Sudhir Krishnaswamy is the Vice-Chancellor of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU). He is also a co-founder of the Center for Law and Policy Research (CLPR) which works to advance constitutional values for everyone, including LGBTQ+ and transgender persons in India, through research, advocacy and impact litigation.

Background and education

Krishnaswamy was born in 1975 in Karanataka capital city, Bengaluru. He graduated with a BA LLB from the National Law School of India University and, as a Rhodes Scholar, read Bachelors of Civil Law and obtained Doctor of Philosophy (Law) from the University of Oxford.

Areas of interest and work

Areas of interest of Krishnaswamy include constitutional law, legal education, legal theory, intellectual property law and administrative law, according to the website of CLPR.

He has been a Teaching Fellow in Law at the Pembroke College at Oxford University, an Assistant Professor at NLSIU and a Professor at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.

He is currently a faculty member at the Azim Premji University. He was also the Dr BR Ambedkar Visiting Professor of Indian Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School.

In the past, Sudhir has also worked in the Prime Minister’s Committee on Infrastructure and the Kasturirangan Committee on Governance of Bangalore.

Besides co-founding CLPR, Krishnaswamy is a partner at Ashira Law.

What Sudhir Krishnaswamy has to say on being on Facebook Oversight Board?

Creating this new mechanism for platform governance to oversee a private company is a radical reform, reported news agency IANS quoting Krishnaswamy. "If this mechanism works, it provides us with a new institutional model for handling content moderation in the future,” he was quoted as saying.

The step is as important to the future of democracy as it is to the market, added Krishnaswamy.

Sudhir Krishnaswamy (Image: NLSIU/Facebook)

According to Facebook Director of Governance and Strategic Initiatives Brent Harris, it will continue to work with the Board until up to 40 members have been selected after which the board will take on sole responsibility for selection of members in the future.

The Board will begin considering cases later in the year, including hearing appeals from Facebook and Instagram users and cases referred to the board by Facebook for review.