"I'm so excited to be in Israel today. I lived here as a one-year old, and the country is personally meaningful to me. Some of my first words were in Hebrew," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said today. She was speaking at an event launching Facebook Israel's Playground platform in Facebook's development center in Tel Aviv. The site will be used for training and events for startups, developers, communities, private organizations, etc.
"This country is also meaningful for Facebook. Israel is a country of startups and entrepreneurs. There is one startup here for every 15,000 people - the country with the highest percentage of startups in the world," Sandberg continued.
She described Facebook's mission as "not only to bring businesses together, but also communities and people. 4.5 million people in Israel are part of an active Facebook group. With the help of Playground, we want to bring together startups and conventional businesses and different population groups in Israel. We want to give people digital skills that will help narrow the gaps in the world."
Commenting on the decline of trust in Facebook among users, Sandberg said, "I believe that technology can be an enormous power for good. We know that for this goal, we have to regain people's trust." She also commented on the subject of protection of elections on Facebook's platform, saying, "Important elections are now taking place in Israel, and at Facebook, we're working hard to prevent intervention in the election campaign and dissemination of fake news. Online security is work that never ends."
Sandberg has been Facebook's COO for over a decade. Before that, she was a VP at Google, after working for the US government. Sandberg is regarded as one of the most influential women in Silicon Valley.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 14, 2019
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