Nick Clegg’s departure signals a new political era at Meta
Share:
Centrist and globalist Clegg is being replaced by a conservative champion ahead of Trump’s second term. Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Happy New Year! May dry January leave us all with fewer headaches. Today in TechScape: Meta promotes a Trumpian bulldog, TikTok faces mounting problems that aren’t a ban, Meta faces backlash against its approach to AI and Elon Musk meddles abroad.
![[tiktok logo]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/007f6d891c2d12df98a926fef23eed294da078aa/0_200_6022_3615/master/6022.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, is now the former head of global affairs at Meta. He announced his resignation on Thursday after six years at the tech giant. He spent two years in the company’s top policy job. In the announcement of his departure, Clegg wrote: “It truly has been an adventure of a lifetime! … I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics.” He sold almost $19m worth of Meta shares during his time at the company, and he holds some $21m more. He may return to British politics, as the party he once led, the Liberal Democrats, won a record number of seats at the general election last year.
![[a phone with meta ai logo on it]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/09c748822b08c4d118078f0e3a6106cb93be662f/0_208_6240_3744/master/6240.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
You can see in Clegg’s book titles how he was a politician of a less polarized era: Politics: Between the Extremes (and How To Stop Brexit (And Make Britain Great Again). He made neither of his two shots on goal with these books: we live in extreme times, and Brexit was not stopped. Donald Trump is president of the US once again, and Meta’s home country has shifted further to the right than when Trump first won the White House. The former Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, so well-connected in Democratic circles, isn’t even on Meta’s board any longer. Clegg no longer fits the times.
![[a man’s face in front of x logo]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/822c87019ee72cf98aa27a9fd638d9986db64840/0_173_5184_3110/master/5184.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
