Facebook seeks to train 1M Europeans on online media, safety

The social network is opening sites in Spain, Italy and Poland to teach media literacy and online protection.

Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent

Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.

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Katie Collins

Jan. 22, 2018 6:13 a.m. PT

New Facebook London office — Facebook is investing in Europe.
Dominic Lipinski / PA Images / Getty

Facebook is opening three centers across Europe to train more than 1 million people in digital skills over the next two years, the company said Monday.

The sites will be based in Spain, Italy and Poland and will focus on training in media literacy and online safety for underrepresented groups, Facebook said in a blog post.

The social network also announced 10 million euros ($13.5 million, £9.7 million, AU$16.8 million) of investments in France through its artificial intelligence research site there. The investments come amid Facebook's problems in suppressing fake news and hate speech on its platform. They're also an international expansion of the "Community Boost" program that Facebook launched in the US in November.