Sir Nick Clegg leave Meta ahead of Trump's return
2025-01-03
Category: economic

Former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg is to step down from his current job as president of global affairs at social media giant Meta.In a post on Meta's Facebook on Thursday, Sir Nick, a former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said he was departing the company after nearly seven years.He will be replaced by his current deputy and Republican Joe Kaplan, who previously served as deputy chief of staff in the White House during President George W Bush's administration, and is known for handling the company's relations with Republicans. He added that he would spend "a few months handing over the reins" and representing Facebook at international gatherings before moving on to "new adventures". 
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.His relations with Mr Zuckerberg have been particularly strained, after Facebook and Instagram suspended the former president's accounts for two years in 2021, after they said he praised those engaged in violence at the Capitol on 6 January. More recently, Trump threatened to imprison Mr Zuckerberg if he interfered in the 2024 election, and even called Facebook an "enemy of the people" in March.However tensions appear to be thawing between the two, with the pair dining at Trump's Florida estate in Mar-a-Lago since the US election. Mr Zuckerberg also congratulated him on his victory and donated $1m (£786,000) to an inauguration fund.
Sir Nick's departure is seen by some analysts as a nod to the changing of the guard in Washington. He joined Facebook in 2018, after losing his seat as an MP in 2017. He was later promoted to president of global affairs, a prominent position at Meta.He was instrumental in launching Meta's oversight board, a panel of experts that makes decisions and advises Mr Zuckerberg on policies around content moderation, privacy, and other issues.Sir Nick has been open about his views on Trump's close ally, Elon Musk, describing him as a political puppet master, claiming he has turned X, formerly Twitter, into a "one-man hyper-partisan hobby horse".The former Liberal Democrat leader moved to Silicon Valley initially but returned to London in 2022.In his statement, he said he was moving on to "new adventures" with "immense gratitude and pride" at what he had been part of.He said: "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. "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."He added: "I am simply thrilled that my deputy, Joel Kaplan, will now become Meta's chief global affairs officer…He is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time!"