This is an incredibly well reported story. >As far back as 2014, the question of how Ireland would handle the new privacy rules under the GDPR was on the minds

This is an incredibly well reported story. >As far back as 2014, the question of how Ireland would handle the new privacy rules under the GDPR was on the minds of Facebook’s leaders. As it happened, Ireland was in the process of choosing a new chief data regulator to replace Hawkes. Sandberg took it on herself to investigate the matter, lobbying then-Irish Prime Minister Kenny on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos and also at her offices in Menlo Park, California. According to emails obtained by the Irish Independent via Freedom of Information requests, Sandberg wanted to know that Hawkes’ successor would be “as strong as” he had been in the role. But if the wrong choice was made, Sandberg suggested, there would be consequences for Ireland’s attractiveness as a destination for tech investment. “The risk is that companies will revisit their investment strategies for the EU market,” she wrote in a June 2014 email to Kenny, adding that Ireland’s regulator should be a person who would “establish a strong collaborative working relationship with companies like ours.” The choice of Dixon, a former Irish civil servant with a law degree but no background in law enforcement or regulatory investigation, was in line with Sandberg’s wishes. Before she became one of the most important privacy regulators in the world, Dixon had spent four years working for U.S. software company Citrix, followed by a stint at the business-friendly Irish Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation.