Clegg, a former deputy prime minister of Britain, had handled policy and regulatory issues globally for Meta since 2018. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, thanked Clegg for making an “important impact advancing Meta’s voice and values around the world.”
Highlights from Clegg’s six-year stint at the company:
- Clegg joined Facebook in 2018 as vice‑president for global affairs and communications, after losing his seat as an MP in 2017. This was when the Zuckerberg-led company was facing heat due to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its role in the 2016 US presidential election.
- In 2022, Clegg was instrumental in setting up Meta’s Oversight Board, an independent body to review content moderation decisions and provide recommendations on Meta’s policies. He was then promoted to lead the company’s global affairs.
- As a former EU politician, Clegg also worked with EU policymakers to construct Meta’s response to emerging digital policies in the region, including the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act.
- Clegg also contributed to Meta’s rebranding from Facebook to Meta, stressing the company’s focus on virtual reality, augmented reality, and the metaverse.
- In his role, Clegg engaged with governments, and addressed concerns around data privacy, election integrity, and online safety. In an exclusive interaction with ETtech in 2022, Clegg had outlined the importance of India’s tech policy. “The Indian government is seeking to carve regulations for India and not just taking off-the-shelf versions from Europe or from the UK or from Canada or the US. I do think there is a real awareness that India plays such a unique role in the digital ecosystem,” he had said.
- Later in 2023, on another India visit, Clegg had emphasised India’s role in the coming AI revolution. “India is already the world’s second largest developer ecosystem. Given the kind of dynamism and sort of hunger and technical expertise of people here, we will see a huge amount of AI powered innovation from entrepreneurs and developers and creators and influencers in India,” he said.
Meta & TrumpMeta seems to be attempting to forge a closer relationship with the Republican party with this move. During his presidency, Trump had repeatedly accused Meta, particularly Facebook, of trying to censor conservative viewpoints. In 2021, Facebook suspended Trump’s account following the January 6 incident at Capitol Hill.
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Clegg has also voiced his opinion on Musk, Trump’s close ally, terming him as a political puppet master, saying that he turned Twitter, now X, into a “one-man hyper-partisan hobby horse”.
