Sir Nick Clegg to go away Meta forward of Trump’s return | EUROtoday

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

In a submit on Meta’s Facebook on Thursday, Sir Nick, a former chief of the Liberal Democrats, mentioned he was departing the corporate after practically seven years.

He can be changed by his present deputy and Republican Joel Kaplan, who beforehand served as deputy chief of employees within the White House 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 “a few months handing over the reins” and representing Facebook 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 House.

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 Facebook and Instagram suspended the previous president’s accounts for 2 years in 2021, after they mentioned he praised these engaged in violence on the Capitol on 6 January.

More lately, Trump threatened to imprison Mr Zuckerberg if he interfered within the 2024 election, and even known as Facebook an “enemy of the people” in March.

However tensions seem like thawing between the 2, with the pair eating at Trump’s Florida property in Mar-a-Lago because the 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 Facebook in 2018, after shedding his seat as an MP in 2017. He was later promoted to president of worldwide affairs, a distinguished place at Meta.

In an announcement asserting he would step down, Sir Nick mentioned his successor Joel Kaplan is “quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time”.

Trump was photographed with Mr Kaplan on the New York Stock Exchange final month.

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

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

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

He mentioned lately, nevertheless, that the agency’s actions had resulted in some folks being “unfairly penalised” on its platforms too typically.

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 hobby horse”.

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

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

“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,” he mentioned.

“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.”