Facebook expands UK office; shuns government-backed 'Tech City'

Facebook's operation in London is set to grow over the next year, as the company announced a move from their Carnaby Street office in Soho to a larger office in London's West End.

Currently employing 70 people in the British capital, the move is expected to increase the number of advertising sales jobs, while product development is set to remain California-based.

Joanna Shields, Facebook's vice president and Europe, Middle East and Africa managing director, said that the London office is recruiting.

But the UK government's 'Tech City' in Shoreditch -- the so-called 'Silicon Valley of London', announced last year and at the time expected to be home to the UK branch of major technology firms -- is being shunned by a number of other technology firms.

Neither Facebook, Google or Twitter have made plans to move into London's Tech City, with Microsoft UK based in Victoria Street in Westminster, and Google rumoured to be looking for a larger space in north London's King's Cross area.

Twitter has not yet revealed where it will base itself in the capital, however. Tony Wang, who relocated to the UK earlier this year, is set to open Twitter's first European office in the coming months.

Amid controversy around super-injunctions and gagging orders, Twitter's move may mean greater reach of Britain's convoluted privacy laws, which could lead to censorship and filtering on the microblogging site.