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Facebook Eyes Major Reorganization Following Data Breach Scandal - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Following scandals around Russia-sponsored content and the breach of personal data, Facebook plans to reorganize the company on a large scale into three main groups, local media reported on Wednesday.
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According to the Recode technology news portal, the first group will deal with Facebook apps, namely Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, and will be headed by Chief Product Officer Chris Cox.

The second group under the direction of Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer will be responsible for new platforms and infrastructure, in particular, augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, the news portal added.

READ MORE: Facebook Launches New Office in Barcelona to Combat Fake News — Reports

Finally, the third group led by Vice President of Growth Javier Olivan will focus on advertisement, analytics, development and product management.

The reports about the company's shake-up have been then confirmed by a Facebook representative to another news portal — Business Insider.

Facebook Launches New Office in Barcelona to Combat Fake News - Reports
Facebook has recently become embroiled in a personal data breach scandal. In late March, media reported that the personal information of about 50 million Facebook users had been harvested by Cambridge Analytica without their consent during the 2016 US presidential campaign. While reportedly working for multiple political campaigns, the firm gathered data from these millions of social media accounts to develop a mechanism that would predict and influence the behavior of voters.

Last year, Facebook got involved into inquiry on Russian alleged interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum. In December, Facebook said that St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, which is suspected of interfering in the 2016 US election, spent only $0.97 on the referendum-related advertisements delivered to audiences in the United Kingdom.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in foreign elections and domestic affairs, saying that such actions go against the principles and conduct of Russian foreign policy.

UK Businessman Wins "Right to be Forgotten" by Google
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that the company is relaunching its news service facilitating the search of information from credible sources for its users as part of fight against fake news distribution, local media reported on Wednesday.

According to the Business Insider news portal, the Google News service with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) will also highlight the articles a user might be interested in and help in search for detailed information on particular subjects.

"We are using AI to bring forward the best of what journalism has to offer… We want to give users quality sources that they trust," Pichai said at Google developer conference on Tuesday as quoted by the news outlet.

Following the launch of the updated service, every user will have personalized news channel based on their personal information available to Google, the Business Insider added.

The relaunched news service is expected to operate in 127 counties

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