Facebook Hires Biden Transition, Obama-Era Official as VP of Civil Rights

Then-White House Deputy Assistant to the President for the Office of Urban Affairs, Justice and Opportunity Roy Austin in Washington, on Feb. 11, 2015. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Facebook has hired Roy Austin, an Obama administration veteran and a member of President Joe Biden’s transition team, as the social media company’s vice president of civil rights and deputy general counsel.

Austin had been a civil rights prosecutor and served as a Department of Justice (DOJ) supervisor before becoming a deputy assistant to President Barack Obama in the Office of Urban Affairs, Justice, and Opportunity in 2014. In 2017, he went into private practice as a criminal defense and civil rights attorney at Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis.