Sir Nick Clegg will leave Meta before Trump’s return

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, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said he was leaving the company after almost seven years.

He will be replaced by his current deputy and Republican Joel Kaplan, who previously served as deputy chief of staff at the White House during the administration of President George W. Bush, and is known for handling the company’s relations with Republicans.

He said he would spend “a few months handing over the reins” and representing Facebook at international events 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 relationship with Mr Zuckerberg has been particularly strained, with Facebook and Instagram suspending the former president’s accounts for two years in 2021 after he said he criticized people involved in the violence at the Capitol on January 6. Was praised.

Recently, Trump threatened to put Mr. Zuckerberg in jail if he interfered in the 2024 election, and even called for him to do so. Facebook became “the enemy of the people” in March.

However, tensions between the two appear to be easing, with the pair dining at Trump’s Florida estate at Mar-a-Lago since the US election.

Mr. Zuckerberg also congratulated him on his victory and donated $1 million (£786,000) to the inaugural fund.

Sir Nick’s departure is being seen by some analysts as a sign of a change of power in Washington.

After losing his seat as MP in 2017, he joined Facebook in 2018. He was later promoted to President of Global Affairs, a key position at Meta.

He played a key role in launching Meta’s Oversight Board, a panel of experts that makes decisions and advises Mr. Zuckerberg on policies related to content moderation, privacy and other issues.

Sir Nick has opened up about his views on close Trump ally Elon Musk, calling him a political puppet master and claiming he has turned X, formerly Twitter, into a “one-man hyper-partisan hobby horse”. .

The former Liberal Democrat leader initially moved to Silicon Valley 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 has been a part of.

He said: “My time at the company has coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between ‘big tech’ and societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms impacting the sector.

“I hope I have played some role in trying to bridge the very different worlds of technology and politics – worlds that will continue to interact in unexpected ways around the world.”

He added: “I am thrilled that my deputy, Joel Kaplan, will now become Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer… He is clearly the right person for the right job at the right time!”