The social media giant said it will employ more than 3,000 people in the capital by the end of the year across three sites, including its new engineering centre in Soho, central London.

"These hundreds of new jobs demonstrate not only our commitment to the UK but also our determination to proactively detect and remove malicious content," Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said at a London Tech Week event.

Facebook said London was its biggest engineering centre outside the United States, with 1,800 people employed in technology and engineering by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by James Davey)