By STEVEN GRAY – Mon Apr 4, 8:30 am ET
Facebook’s march into Washington began in late 2007, shortly after its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, unveiled Beacon, a program that allowed users to see granular details of the online behavior of their Facebook “friends.” Privacy experts, particularly on Capitol Hill, fumed.
In early March, Barack and Michelle Obama appeared in an exclusive Facebook video from the White House. The topic was bullying prevention, and it was by far the highest profile in the series of online conversations the social-media behemoth has produced with various members of Congress and federal and state officials in recent months. “You can participate in the conversation online,” the President said, “right here on Facebook.”
That endorsement is one of the most provocative examples of how Facebook is changing the way the social-media industry is throwing its weight around in Washington. This week, the company’s 10 Washington staffers moved into a gleaming 8,500-sq.-ft. (790 sq m) office near the White House, equipped with a studio for upcoming Facebook Live episodes with lawmakers. In recent months, the company has hired several experienced Washington hands, including Marne Levine, a former aide at President Obama’s National Economic Council. Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, is a former Clinton Administration official. And the company is reportedly courting Obama’s former spokesman, Robert Gibbs. (See TIME’s 140 best Twitter feeds.)
Barely three years after opening its first Washington outpost, Facebook has assigned a team to offer tutorials to Congressional staffers and state officials. Another new hire works exclusively with prospective Republican presidential candidates. And Washington has responded: as of last year, more than 50 federal government departments had created 1,000-plus Facebook pages. “They’re doing things that no one else has done before because the technology is so new,” says Chris Calabrese, the American Civil Liberties Union’s top privacy lobbyist.
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Tags: Congress, Facebook, Freedom Torch, Internet, Media, News Item, social network
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