The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Facebook upgrading security hiring
Facebook Inc. is looking to hire people who have national security clearances, a move the company thinks is necessary to prevent foreign powers from manipulating future elections through its social network, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Workers with such clearance can access information classified by the U.S. government. Facebook plans to use these people — and their ability to receive government information about potential threats — to search more proactively for questionable social media campaigns ahead of elections, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is sensitive. A Facebook spokesman declined to comment.
Job candidates like this are often former government and intelligence officials or contractors. The status can carry over to private-sector jobs, as long as the position still requires access to sensitive information. Previously granted clearances become inactive when intelligence workers leave government employment, but they can be reactivated on Facebook’s behalf, the person said.
The Office of the National Director of Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
Facebook has been under pressure to address issues related to potential political manipulation after it disclosed early last month that it sold about $100,000 in ads during the 2016 presidential election to buyers it later learned were connected to the Russian government. Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is examining Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election as well as its possible collusion with associates of President Donald Trump, is said to have a “red-hot’’ focus on how Russia used social media platforms.
Without employees who can handle classified material, Facebook would need to give government investigators access to its system to investigate threats, according to Scott Amey, general counsel of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based group that studies national security issues. So the move to hire people with clearances may be aimed at controlling access to the inner workings of its platform, like code and user data, he said.
“Facebook may be doing this so things aren’t turned over to government,” Amey said, adding that the company’s relationship with government agencies should be transparent, including which policies the company will implement to protect any classified information its employees view.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said last month that Facebook plans to add more than 250 people across its teams that deal with security and safety for the social network and to more than double the team working on election integrity.