Facebook will be going on a hiring spree in the United Kingdom post Brexit as it struggles to rebuild trust in its platform continues. The social media giant, reportedly, plans to hire 1,000 employees who will be specially tasked to take down and harmful content from its platform.
UK is Facebook's biggest engineering center outside the US and the social media giant wants to use London's appeal as a technology ecosystem. Facebook has been long struggling to reinstate users' faith in its platform since it got embroiled in a data breach scandal in early 2018.
What are Facebook's plans?
Facebook, reportedly, is planning to add another 1,000 employees to its workforce in the UK. According to a Reuters report, Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in an interview said that the hiring will be essentially in technology that includes software engineering and data science. She further said that the company is waiting for a certainty on Brexit before making the announcement.
A large number of jobs will also be in Facebook's Community Integrity team, who will be specifically assigned to take down harmful content like terrorist propaganda and child pornography. The job announcement is likely to be made by Sheryl Sandberg ahead of her visit to Davos, Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum.
Facebook already has 3,000 employees in the UK, which will now go up to 4,000. UK is an important center for Facebook and it wants to use London's appeal as a technology ecosystem to expand its business in Europe.
A planned move by Facebook
Facebook and its chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has been under tremendous pressure from regulators both in the US and Europe to do a better job of policing its service. The company has also been criticized for the way it handles political ads and has often been asked to review its political ad policy.
European regulators have particularly been stricter with Facebook than the US. On Monday, Nick Clegg, Facebook's public affairs chief and a former British politician said that the company aims to do a better job this year by eliminating bad factors that may manipulate this year's US Presidential election.
Moreover, antitrust bodies across Europe have been constantly building pressure on Facebook to police its services and content. Facebook and other Internet company could also face fines if they fail to take down post that may incite violence or put the personal safety of its users at risk.
Although Facebook is citing economic benefits its platforms bring to business in Europe, it is quite evident that is trying to rebuild the trust among its users. The company's image started getting dented following the data breach scandal involving Cambridge Analytica that exposed the personal information of more than 80 million users.
