s = (
    """{"id":"123456789","name":"John Doe","first_name":"John","last_name":"Doe","link":"http:\\/\\/www.facebook.com\\/jdoe","gender":"male","email":"jdoe\\u0040gmail.com","timezone":-7,"locale":"en_US","verified":true,"updated_time":"2011-01-12T02:43:35+0000"}"""
    )
json.loads(s)
Строка в словарь в Python