Nick Clegg, Britain’s former deputy prime minister and Meta’s current president of global affairs, is leaving the company after six years.
“It truly has been an adventure of a lifetime!” Clegg said in a post on Facebook. “I am proud of the work I have been able to do leading and supporting teams across the company to ensure innovation can go hand in hand with increased transparency and accountability, and with new forms of governance.”
Clegg joined the Facebook parent company in 2018 as the social media platform’s vice‑president for global affairs and communications. At the time the company faced intense scrutiny over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and its role in the 2016 US presidential election. He was promoted to the chief policy role in 2022 after he helped to establish the Facebook Oversight Board – an independent board that makes decisions on the social network’s moderation policies.
“My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between ‘big tech’ and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector,” Clegg wrote. “I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics – worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe.”
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Clegg will be replaced by his deputy, Joel Kaplan, who, Clegg wrote, “is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time”. Kaplan previously served as the deputy chief of staff for policy under former president George W Bush. He is known to be the most prominent conservative voice at the company who rose to the top ranks at a time when Facebook faced claims of liberal bias. During his time in the role, Kaplan pushed to partner with the fact-checking division of rightwing news site The Daily Caller in response to concerns from Republicans over the company’s partnership with mainstream news organizations. Most recently, Kaplan was pictured at the New York Stock Exchange alongside vice-president-elect JD Vance during the Time Person of the Year ceremony.
The policy team shakeup comes just weeks before the 20 January inauguration of Donald Trump. As Trump has come in and out of power, tech firms including Meta have vacillated between enforcing their moderation rules against Trump, including banning his accounts, and reversing those decisions. Days after Trump was elected, Meta donated $1m to Trump’s inauguration fund and the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg dined with him at Mar-a-Lago. This comes after Trump threatened to punish Zuckerberg if his platform at all influenced the election.
In response to Clegg’s post on Facebook, Zuckerberg thanked the executive and said he was excited for Kaplan to step into the role “given his deep experience and insight leading our policy work for many years”.
“You’ve made an important impact advancing Meta’s voice and values around the world, as well as our vision for AI and the metaverse,” Zuckerberg wrote in response to Clegg’s post. “You’ve also built a strong team to carry this work forward.”
