Facebook London hiring spree focuses on tackling online harms
Social media behemoth Facebook is putting London at the centre of its evolving strategy to tackle online harms, with the creation of 500 jobs in the capital this year.
A significant number of jobs are focused on building artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to clamp down on harmful and malicious content and fake accounts on its social platforms.
Facebook’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) vice-president, Nicola Mendelsohn, confirmed the hires at a London Tech Week event on 12 June. She said online safety was a top priority for Facebook, pointing to a substantial increase in its investment in this area in the past couple of years.
“These hundreds of new jobs demonstrate not only our commitment to the UK but our determination to do everything we can to keep Facebook safe and secure,” said Mendelsohn.
“Many of these roles will accelerate our artificial intelligence work in London as we continue developing technology to proactively detect and remove malicious content,” she added.
The recruitment spree will mean Facebook will employ more than 3,000 people in London by the end of 2019, with 1,800 of them in engineering roles in what is already its largest engineering centre outside of the US.
The specific focus of the organisation’s recruitment plans come at a tough time for Facebook, as it faces a continued storm of controversy over its use of data and attitude to privacy and online harms, both in the UK and elsewhere.
At the start of the year a PR agency-commissioned survey suggested that in light of issues surrounding privacy, data misuse and cyberbullying, 83% of British people now believe Facebook should be subject to government regulation.
The UK government has already moved to establish the UK as a world leader in fighting online harms. In April 2019 it published its Online Harms whitepaper, setting out the world’s first framework intended to hold firms such as Facebook accountable for the safety of their users.
The whitepaper proposes that technology firms are made to take steps to protect customers from threats including cyberbullying, disinformation and fake news, as well as outright illegal behaviours such as child sexual exploitation or terrorism.
Speaking at the time, prime minister Theresa May said internet companies such as Facebook had not done enough to protect their users.
“That is not good enough, and it is time to do things differently. We have listened to campaigners and parents, and are putting a legal duty of care on internet companies to keep people safe,” she said. “Online companies must start taking responsibility for their platforms, and help restore public trust in this technology.”
Meanwhile, Facebook said it would not be removing a so-called deep fake video, a doctored video created using AI software, that manipulated existing videos and pictures of its CEO Mark Zuckerberg to make it appear he was saying things that he had not.
The video was first uploaded to Facebook’s photo-sharing platform, Instagram, earlier in June, and has since been viewed widely and was also shared on Facebook as well.
In the short piece of footage, which was actually created by a British artist to highlight how people can be manipulated by social media, Zuckerberg appeared to gloat about a conspiratorial and shadowy organisation being behind Facebook’s success.
source computerweekly
Industry: Cyber Security

Latest Jobs
-
- IAM Consultant- One Identity Manager- UK Wide
- Manchester
- Upto £75,000 plus excellent benefits
-
One Identity IAM consultant is needed for this expanding UK based business, you will be responsible for: Developing and Supporting the Identity and Access management system based-on One Identity products Active Roles Server and Identity Manager. Further develop One Identity Manager’s integration with Service Now to provide automated JML processes and application access requests and fulfilment. Work across the business ensuring that the IAM solutions integrates into both the technology and business systems and processes, ideally automating as mush as possible. Work with the Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC) team to provide application access attestations and toxic combination alerting and reporting. Work on a mixture of IAM related projects to help to integrate new ideas and technology into the business to ensure the business stays fully compliant Assist in ensuring that all IAM capabilities are mapped to internal processes, policies, and standards. Develop metrics to measure and improve and also compile reports around the solution If you are interested in this opportunity we are looking for someone who is skilled within Identity Acess management, you will need to have worked with the One Identity product, ideally both Active Roles Server and Identity Manager Experience in managing and integrating with Microsoft systems (on-premise and cloud), such as Active Directory, Exchange, Office, SharePoint, etc.
-
- SailPoint Integration Consultant
- Unknown
- Upto £75000 plus benefits
-
SailPoint Integration Consultant. SailPoint Integration Consultant is needed for this expanding service business to help them with complex deployment with their FTSE focused customer base. They are looking for experienced SailPoint Integration Consultants who have: • Strong solution designing experience with in depth understanding of IAM concepts and thorough understanding of Sailpoint domain. • Thorough understanding of Identity and Access Governance concepts • Leading and creating Identity & Access Management (IAM) technical architecture • Secure by Design principles in Identify Access management, Privilege Access management • Familiar with cloud architectures, data management and source control from a security perspective. This is a great opportunity to join a business that is growing and looking for individuals who want to grow and develop and work on some of the most complex Sailpoint deployments.
-
- CyberArk Integration Consultant
- Greater London
- upto 75,000 plus benefits
-
CyberArk Integration Consultant. CyberArk Integration Consultant is needed for this expanding service business to help them with complex deployment with their FTSE focused customer base. They are looking for experienced CyberArk Integration Consultants who have: • Strong solution designing experience with in depth understanding of IAM concepts and thorough understanding of CyberArk domain. • Thorough understanding of Identity and Access Governance concepts • Leading and creating Identity & Access Management (IAM) technical architecture • Secure by Design principles in Identify Access management, Privilege Access management • Familiar with cloud architectures, data management and source control from a security perspective. This is a great opportunity to join a business that is growing and looking for individuals who want to grow and develop and work on some of the most complex CyberArk deployments.
-
- Penetration Tester, UK based. Ability to achieve SC clearance
- United Kingdom
- 55000
-
Experienced Penetration tester- UK based with the ability to achieve SC clearance. On-going training and development and paid certifications / renewals. Interested to hear from all areas of penetration testing, web app, infrastructure, mobile, etc. MUST have current hands on experience delivering penetration testing. Ideally from a consultancy background with experience working with multiple clients. OSCP / CREST / CHECK / Tigerscheme penetration testing experience / certifications desirable. Apply today for more details. All information kept in the strictest of confidence.