MetaFormer deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg is stepping down from his current role as international director of social media giant Meta.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Nick said in a post on Meta’s Facebook page on Thursday that he was leaving the company after almost seven years.
He will be replaced by current Vice President Joel Kaplan, a Republican who served as acting White House chief of staff in the administration of President George W. Bush and is known for handling the company’s relations with the Republican Party. .
He added that he would spend “several months” handing over the reins as Facebook’s representative at international gatherings before moving on to “a new adventure.”
Sir Nick’s resignation comes just weeks before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
The president-elect has repeatedly accused Meta and other platforms of censorship and silencing conservative speech.
Relations with Zuckerberg have been particularly strained since Facebook and Instagram suspended the former president’s accounts for two years in 2021 for praising those who committed the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. are.
President Trump recently threatened to jail Zuckerberg if he interfered in the 2024 election and even called Facebook an “enemy of the people” in March.
However, since the US presidential election, the two have dined at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida, and tensions between the two appear to be thawing.
Mr Zuckerberg also celebrated his victory, donating $1 million (£786,000) to the inaugural fund.
Some analysts believe Sir Nick’s resignation marks a changing of the guard in Washington.
He joined Facebook in 2018 after losing his seat in Congress in 2017. He was later promoted to President of International Affairs, an important position at Meta.
In a statement announcing his resignation, Sir Nick said his successor, Joel Kaplan, was “clearly the right person for the right job at the right time”.
President Trump was photographed with Kaplan at the New York Stock Exchange last month.
Social media industry analyst Jasmine Enberg said Kaplan is “likely the right person for this political moment.”
“Meta, like other technology companies, is rushing to win the support of the incoming Trump administration,” she told the BBC.
She added that Sir Nick’s departure from Meta and increased political polarization on social platforms suggests the company may change the way it manages political speech. Ta.
different world
During his time at Meta, Nick established himself not only as a spokesperson, but also as a bridge between governments, regulators, and technology companies.
The role has become more important as new regulations and laws require social media companies to take more responsibility for the content on their platforms and their consequences.
He oversaw the creation of the Oversight Board, an independent body established to oversee Meta’s content moderation decisions.
But he recently said that the company’s actions frequently resulted in some people receiving “unfair penalties” on its platform.
Sir Nick has also been outspoken about Trump’s close ally Elon Musk, describing him as a political puppet master and calling his former Twitter account “a bipartisan hobbyist.” He claims that he changed the horse into a “horse”.
The former Liberal Democrat leader initially moved to Silicon Valley, but returned to London in 2022.
He said he was moving on to his “new adventure” with “immeasurable gratitude and pride” for having been a part of it.
“My time at the company coincided with a major reset in the relationship between ‘big tech’ and the social pressures expressed in new laws, institutions and norms impacting the sector,” he said. spoke.
“I hope that I have played a role in bridging the very different worlds of technology and politics, worlds that continue to interact in unpredictable ways around the world.”
