Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is shaking up its global policy team, with President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg stepping down and being replaced by Joel Kaplan, the company’s most senior Republican executive.
Semafor reports that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced a major leadership change on Thursday, with Joel Kaplan set to replace Nick Clegg as the head of the company’s global policy team. Kaplan, who currently serves as Meta’s vice president of global public policy and was Clegg’s chief deputy, will take over the role in the coming weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.
The shift comes as the titans of Silicon Valley are bending the knee to President-elect Donald Trump and his inner circle, while pulling back from the progressive stances many had adopted in recent years. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who had previously been threatened with jail time by Trump, recently dined with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago and congratulated him on his election victory.
Kaplan, who served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George W. Bush, has been a strong advocate against restrictions on political speech within Meta. He has argued that such policies would disproportionately silence conservative voices on the platform. Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister and leader of the country’s Liberal Democrats, joined Meta in 2018 to oversee the company’s policy and lobbying efforts. He was promoted to president in 2022.
With Kaplan’s elevation and the appointments of Kevin Martin, a former FCC commissioner under George W. Bush, as vice president of global public policy, and Jennifer Newstead, who served as the top legal adviser to the Trump State Department, as general counsel, Meta’s political operation appears better positioned for a Republican-controlled Washington.
In a statement, Zuckerberg expressed gratitude for Clegg’s contributions to Meta over the past seven years. “I’ve learned so much working with you, and our whole team is better for having this opportunity,” he said. “You’ve made an important impact advancing Meta’s voice and values around the world, as well as our vision for AI and the metaverse. You’ve also built a strong team to carry this work forward. I’m excited for Joel to step into this role next, given his deep experience and insight leading our policy work for many years.”
At Facebook, Clegg’s leftist worldview made him a central piece of the company’s censorship machine. Clegg played a role in banning Donald Trump, and didn’t reverse the decision until 2023.
As Breitbart News reported:
Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president of global affairs and former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, is reportedly overseeing the decision to allow Trump to return to the platform.
In a blog post in June 2021, Clegg explained how the company would consider allowing Trump to return to the platform, stating: “If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded.”
In December, two Democratic lawmakers urged Facebook to keep Trump suspended from its platforms, citing his recent posts on Truth Social as evidence that he would likely violate the company’s policies if given the opportunity to return. The Democrat lawmakers argued that Meta should maintain Trump’s suspension in order to protect its users.
Read more at Semafor here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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