Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta is hiring three new in-house lobbyists following a June tech policy spree in Ottawa.

LinkedIn postings show Meta is seeking new public policy managers based in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa who will represent Meta's interests “on issues spanning digital regulation, privacy, AI, youth safety, content governance, platform accountability and emerging technology policy.”

The postings were circulating early last week, soon after the federal government tabled Bill C-34, its long-awaited social media safety bill, which would establish a digital safety and privacy commission, ban access to social media for children younger than 16 years old and impose safety guardrails on AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

Days earlier, AI Minister Evan Solomon dropped his long-awaited AI strategy. And on June 15, the federal government introduced Bill C-36, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act. The bill singles out privacy protections for children, and new guardrails related to the development of technologies like artificial intelligence, which require vast amounts of data.

Meta, the owner of multiple social media platforms with major investments in AI, can expect to be heavily impacted by each of the new policy documents.

Meta is no stranger to lobbying about digital policy in Canada and globally. It strongly opposed the online harms act, an earlier attempt by the government under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau to regulate social media companies. That law died on the order paper when Trudeau stepped down in early 2025.

Meta also fought the Trudeau government's Online News Act, which mandated that tech platforms like Meta and Google compensate news outlets for journalistic content on their sites. That law passed in 2023, and to avoid being subject to its terms, Meta banned all links to news on Facebook and Instagram for Canadian users.

Now it appears to be gearing up for a new round of policy engagements with three new in-house policy experts.

The job description says Meta public policy managers are expected to “build and maintain relationships with trade associations, civil society organizations, academic institutions,” to advance Meta's Canadian policy agenda, and “represent Meta at public forums, industry events, and government roundtables to advance the company's policy narrative on digital regulation and technology governance.”

The successful candidates can expect to earn between $110,000 and $153,000 per year.

The managers will be overseen by Meta’s head of public policy in Canada, Rachel Curran. Curran worked in former prime minister Stephen Harper’s office for more than six years before joining Meta, including a four-year stint as his director of policy.

Meta did not respond to the IJF's request for comment.

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