Facebook Hires Bush Aides as Lobbyists

Technology firms in Silicon Valley generally associate themselves with Democrats. But social-networking monolith Facebook is bucking the trend, hiring two Republicans from the George W. Bush administration, The Hill reports.

The company is concerned about a push for privacy legislation in Congress that could restrict Facebook’s operations.

One hire is Joel Kaplan, Bush’s deputy chief of staff, who will serve as vice president of U.S. public policy for Facebook. His boss will be Marne Levine, vice president of global public policy.

The other new staffer is Myriah Jordan, special policy assistant in the Bush White House, who will serve as a policy manager for Facebook’s congressional relations team.

Clearly Facebook wants to ensure it has backers among both Democrats and Republicans in Washington.