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Roy Austin
In January 2021, Facebook hired Roy Austin as its first Vice President of Civil Rights, to establish a new civil rights division in the company, where he will work to combat algorithmic bias and systemic racism. Roy is no stranger to civil rights work. Before Facebook, he practiced civil rights law at Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis, worked as a Senior Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Rights Unit of the DC U.S. Attorney’s Office and as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. He is not new to tech policy either. Roy worked on the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he co-wrote a report on Big Data and Civil Rights. He also worked on the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing, helped develop the Police Data Initiative and was a member of the President’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force. The civil rights movement of the 2020s will look substantially different from movements past, and they will demand a new generation of leader with experience in tech policy, law, and civil rights – the exact experience that Roy Austin brings to his new role at Facebook.