Facebook is warned by PM to tackle online abuse

FACEBOOK’S second in command has been told that social media companies must do more to tackle online abuse, in a meeting with Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel.

Downing Street said the Prime Minister and Ms Patel, together with Culture Secretary Baroness Morgan, met chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg in No 10 following Facebook’s announcement that it was hiring 1,000 more staff in the UK.

The PM’s official spokesman said: “While there has been progress in this area there is still more to do. The Home Secretary made clear that we need to be able to track down terrorists, child abuse and other types of offenders and to work with social media to achieve that.

“The Home Secretary said we need to be able to shut down online space to these kind of people in order to protect our citizens.”

Stopping in the UK ahead of a visit to Davos for the World Economic Forum, Ms Sandberg announced the firm would hire 1,000 new people before the end of the year.

A “large number” will work in the teams that develop technology to remove harmful content.

The additions will take its total workforce in London up to 4,000 by the end of the year, Ms Sandberg said yesterday morning.

Ms Sandberg said that despite Brexit “uncertainty”, the social network remained keen to invest in the UK, calling it “a world leader in both innovation and creativity”.

“London is now our biggest engineering hub outside the US,” she said.

“It is home to our community integrity team that is doing such important work to keep people safe on our platforms, working to take down harmful content and keep people safe.

“We know there’s been some uncertainty about Britain’s future [but] we believe the UK is an important place for us to invest.”