Like Google, Facebook starts to build its own ‘foreign service’

Facebook, with a global user base of over 600 million people, has one of the largest populations on the planet. The company has, therefore, decided to act like a nation state and hire a team of global ‘ambassadors’ who will monitor the political and cultural landscape of the countries they work in and who will be on hand to comment to the media should any issue with Facebook arise. This ‘foreign service’ will also be charged with working with regulators and law makers in individual countries to limit any ‘misunderstandings’ that arise.
“This is the right investment for us to make because we want to have better relationships with regulators and policymakers across Europe and around the world,” said Debbie Frost, a Facebook spokeswoman. “It’s important that we have a presence, so people can have a direct line into Facebook. You limit the scope for misunderstandings.”
European and Middle Eastern lawmakers are becoming increasingly ‘concerned’ about the impact Facebook is having on privacy and the way information is spread.
The successful applicants will, no doubt, be extremely well-connected, high achievers. For example, the Facebook Middle East policy director must have a degree in a related field, have 10 years experience in both government and industry, have “superb” oral and written English as well as being fluent in Turkish & Arabic and have experience as a media spokesperson for a high level government organisation.
“Successful applicants will become part of a team that is dealing with some of the most interesting public policy challenges of our times including privacy, freedom of expression, the impact of the Internet on business models, and new opportunities for public service delivery,” is how the job description runs.
In 2006, Goggle created its own foreign service to do exactly the same thing. Many of Facebook’s top brass are ex-Googlers.