London (AFP)
The social network Facebook announced Tuesday that it plans to hire 1,000 people in the United Kingdom this year to be assigned in particular to the fight against "dangerous content", which has become a priority for the group under pressure from many countries.
More than half of these hires, which will bring the total workforce of the group in the United Kingdom to 4,000 people, will be dedicated to artificial intelligence, augmented reality but also to software engineering, or product design, notably for the Workplace and WhatsApp subsidiaries, according to a press release.
"A large part of these positions" will allow us to develop "tools and technologies to proactively detect and remove dangerous content from our platform", specifies the internet giant, which employs around 43,000 people worldwide.
"The London offices form a center for community integrity teams that cover Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, and are responsible for everything from spam fighting to spam. harassment and threats ", details the press release.
London is Facebook’s largest engineering center outside the United States, and the group is building new offices in two buildings in the rapidly modernizing area of King’s Cross, where the company's offices are located. another internet giant, Google. The first building is due to open next year.
Internet giants, notably Facebook and Google, are under pressure from many governments to better fight the spread of online hatred, incitement to violence, the praise of terrorism, in addition to false information.
Google and Facebook are notably in the midst of a charm offensive between the Davos summit and the major European capitals where governments like France are considering tightening regulations on them.
The boss of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, Sundar Pichai, called on Monday the EU for a "proportionate approach" to regulate artificial intelligence, raising the problem of "deepfakes", deceptive content generated by an algorithm of intelligence, and second, facial recognition technology.
Sheryl Sandberg, number two on Facebook, was to deliver a speech in London to confirm the British hires, before flying to Davos.
© 2020 AFP