Sir Nick Clegg to leave Meta ahead of Trump’s return

Former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg is to step down from his present job as president of world affairs at social media big Meta.

In a put up on Meta’s Fb on Thursday, Sir Nick, a former chief of the Liberal Democrats, stated he was departing the corporate after almost seven years.

He might be changed by his present deputy and Republican Joel Kaplan, who beforehand served as deputy chief of workers within the White Home throughout President George W Bush’s administration, and is understood for dealing with the corporate’s relations with Republicans.

He added that he would spend “just a few months handing over the reins” and representing Fb at worldwide gatherings earlier than shifting on to “new adventures”.

Sir Nick’s resignation comes simply weeks earlier than Donald Trump returns to the White Home.

The president-elect has repeatedly accused Meta and different platforms of censorship and silencing conservative speech.

His relations with Mr Zuckerberg have been notably strained, after Fb and Instagram suspended the previous president’s accounts for 2 years in 2021, after they stated he praised these engaged in violence on the Capitol on 6 January.

Extra not too long ago, Trump threatened to imprison Mr Zuckerberg if he interfered within the 2024 election, and even referred to as Facebook an “enemy of the people” in March.

Nonetheless tensions seem like thawing between the 2, with the pair eating at Trump’s Florida property in Mar-a-Lago for the reason that US election.

Mr Zuckerberg additionally 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 altering of the guard in Washington.

He joined Fb in 2018, after dropping his seat as an MP in 2017. He was later promoted to president of world affairs, a distinguished place at Meta.

In a press release saying he would step down, Sir Nick stated his successor Joel Kaplan is “fairly clearly the fitting individual for the fitting job on the proper time”.

Trump was photographed with Mr Kaplan on the New York Inventory Trade final month.

Social media business analyst Jasmine Enberg stated Mr Kaplan was “seemingly the fitting individual for the job on this political second”.

“Meta, like different tech firms, has been speeding to curry favour with the incoming Trump administration,” she informed the BBC.

Sir Nick leaving Meta, and elevated political polarisation on social platforms, suggests the corporate could shift the way it moderates political speech, she added.

Throughout his time at Meta, Sir Nick established himself not solely as a spokesperson but in addition a bridge between governments, regulators and the tech agency.

As new regulation and laws started to drive social media firms to take extra accountability for the content material on their platforms and the results of it, that function turned essential.

He oversaw the creation of the Oversight Board, an impartial physique set as much as oversee Meta’s content material moderation selections.

He stated not too long ago, nonetheless, that the agency’s actions had resulted in some individuals being “unfairly penalised” on its platforms too usually.

Sir Nick has additionally been open about his views on Trump’s shut ally, Elon Musk, describing him as a political puppet grasp, claiming he has turned X, previously Twitter, right into a “one-man hyper-partisan pastime horse”.

The previous Liberal Democrat chief moved to Silicon Valley initially however returned to London in 2022.

He stated he was shifting on to “new adventures” with “immense gratitude and delight” at what he had been a part of.

“My time on the firm coincided with a major resetting of the connection between ‘massive tech’ and the societal pressures manifested in new legal guidelines, establishments and norms affecting the sector,” he stated.

“I hope I’ve performed some function in in search of to bridge the very totally different worlds of tech and politics – worlds that may proceed to work together in unpredictable methods throughout the globe.”