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Journalism of Courage
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the first head of government to visit the Facebook campus in Menlo Park. A small city in its own right catering to almost 6000 of the company’s employees with everything from open air cafeterias to a public transport system of its own, the facility is winding up to put up a grand show on Sunday.
The event will be in a town hall format and people have been asked to send in questions they want to ask the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is expected to have about 15 minutes with Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg before they take the stage on Sunday morning.
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The company is expecting a lot of outsiders for the event with employees allowed to bring in guests. There will also be some VIP attendees along with over 150 media professionals from India and the US. While Facebook has a good number of employees who are from India, a lot of Indian friends of the other employees have requested for access to the event, it is learnt.
To cope with this unprecedented footfall, at least three dozen more security personnel have been requisitioned. Most of the campus will also be under lockdown till Modi leaves the campus. MPK20, the new Facebook HQ building — a short tram ride under the highway from the old campus — is the largest open plan office building in the world with over 4,20,000 sq feet of space and a terrace garden. It has been designed by Frank Gehry.
* An earlier version wrongly used the term head of state.
The author is in California as a guest of Facebook.
