Facebook To Create 500 Engineering Jobs In London

Facebook will reportedly create hundreds of new jobs in the capital as it seeks to improve its abilities to takedown rule-breaking content.

The social networking giant will, according to Reuters, create 500 jobs by the end of the year, including 100 positions associated with artificial intelligence (AI).

Facebook of course has been using AI for years, which it uses to catch prohibited content, tag people in photos and translate posts into other languages.

Engineering roles

Facebook reportedly said on Wednesday that many of the roles will be working on systems to detect and remove malicious content, fake accounts and harmful behaviour.

Facebook also said that it will employ more than 3,000 people in the capital by the end of the year across three sites, including its new engineering centre in Soho, central London.

“These hundreds of new jobs demonstrate not only our commitment to the UK but also our determination to proactively detect and remove malicious content,” Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook’s vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, was quoted as saying at a London Tech Week event.

According to Facebook, London is its biggest engineering centre outside the United States, with 1,800 people employed in technology and engineering by the end of the year.

Major changes

The firm has long been searching for ways to improve its public image after years of scandals.

One of the measures it adopted for example saw the firm change its terms and conditions, under which it would clearly highlight its business model of selling user data for use in targeted advertising.

Earlier this year Facebook had called for more regulation of internet firms.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg had called for an international framework that would “establish a way to hold companies such as Facebook accountable by imposing sanctions when we make mistakes”.

He has also called for a more “privacy focused” future for the social networking platform, a big change from his previous stance on the subject.

And Facebook has said it will use artificial intelligence “to keep the profile of a deceased loved one from appearing in painful ways,” for surviving family members.

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