Facebook has also transitioned into a political tool. Without Facebook, for example, the Egyptian citizens may not have been able to overthrow their dictator. Facebook has also helped to bring children back to their families. Each state has an Amber Alert page that you can follow to receive the Amber Alert messages in your news feed. Paying attention to the alerts on your news feed can help law enforcement find missing children and bring them home safely.

There from the Beginning
Gen Ovalle, our guide, started working at Facebook four years ago, but her experience with the site began far before her employment. As a freshman at Stanford, she received an email from a friend directing her to a brand new website – The Facebook. During that time in March 2004, the website only had profiles and friends. As an early user, Gen observed the evolution of the service as they added photos, the news feed and other features that the site has become known for. She believes that “people come to Facebook to share information – to connect to each other.” After graduating, such a history with the service helped compel her to apply for a job with the company. Gen started out on the user operations team which handles name changes and policy violations. Gen eventually transferred to the law enforcement team, which deals with subpoenas and other contact with law officials.