Former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg to depart world affairs publish at Meta forward of Donald Trump’s return to presidency
Meta’s president of world affairs, former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, is to depart the corporate and can hand over his place to Joel Kaplan, a outstanding Republican, in a transfer seen as a altering of the guard.
Clegg stated in a social media publish he could be leaving Meta after seven years however would spend “just a few months handing over the reins” earlier than transferring on to “new adventures”.
Kaplan was beforehand deputy chief of workers within the White Home in the course of the George W Bush administration and has served as Meta’s vice-president of world public coverage, a task by which he has overseen the agency’s relations with Republicans.
The shift comes forward of Donald Trump’s return to the presidency later this month, at a time when tech corporations have been dashing to curry favour with the president-elect.
Political shift
Trump has spoken harshly of Meta and its chief government Mark Zuckerberg previously, threatening to jail him if he interfered with the 2024 election.
The connection has turn out to be much less fractious since Trump’s win, with Zuckerberg publicly congratulating the incoming president, donating to an inauguration fund and eating with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Seashore, Florida.
Clegg joined Meta in 2018 after shedding his seat as an MP in 2017, a transfer that got here on the heels of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
He has steered Meta, previously Fb, by numerous political storms together with Trump’s Meta social media accounts being banned for 2 years following the Capitol riots in January 2020.
Clegg additionally oversaw the creation of the Oversight Board that oversees Meta’s content material moderation selections.
‘Gratitude and pleasure’
The previous Liberal Democrat chief moved to Silicon Valley initially however returned to London in 2022 and has been anticipated to section out of his tenure with Meta.
He stated he felt “immense gratitude and pleasure” at what he had been a part of.
“My time on the firm coincided with a big resetting of the connection between ‘large tech’ and the societal pressures manifested in new legal guidelines, establishments and norms affecting the sector,” he wrote.
“I hope I’ve performed some position in searching for to bridge the very totally different worlds of tech and politics – worlds that may proceed to work together in unpredictable methods throughout the globe.”
