Chris Trottier on Nostr: Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta, has just left the job. But who is ...
Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta, has just left the job.
But who is Nick Clegg, and why is he important? Well, Nick Clegg was the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015. Remember that.
Before Nick Clegg came along, Mark Zuckerberg had a big problem. He ran the world’s largest social network, but politicians around the globe didn’t trust him. And why would they? Zuckerberg’s reputation was built on shaky foundations—Facebook began as a Harvard-exclusive project piggybacking on a “Hot or Not” clone. He leveraged it into a massive company that collected user data, often without full consent.
So, what was Zuckerberg to do? How could he win over governments and get them to cooperate with his agenda? The solution: hire Nick Clegg. Since joining Meta, Clegg has effectively acted as a political lobbyist on steroids. If you’ve ever wondered how Facebook survived scandals like Cambridge Analytica or the role it played in the Rohingya genocide (yes, that happened because of Facebook), the answer is Nick Clegg.
Facebook has repeatedly been caught siphoning user data—often without consent—and even creating shadow profiles for people who don’t use its services. Yet, thanks to Clegg, the company has weathered controversy after controversy. Since 2015, Clegg has helped Meta (formerly Facebook) maintain its dominance and push through its agenda.
Now, compare that to ByteDance, the company behind TikTok. ByteDance operates in a similar manner to Meta, but here’s the key difference: ByteDance doesn’t have a Nick Clegg. It doesn’t have a high-profile former politician from a G7 nation on its executive board. Worse (or better, depending on your view), ByteDance is linked to the Chinese government. While that hasn’t been definitively proven, Chinese law mandates that companies must comply with the Chinese Communist Party when requested. This connection alone has put ByteDance on the verge of being banned in the U.S. and allied nations.
So, shouldn’t Meta face similar scrutiny? Shouldn’t we question how Meta has compromised elections, enabled genocides, and harvested data on a massive scale? Maybe we should. But Meta had Nick Clegg, a politician-turned-executive, to shield it.
Never forget this: Elon Musk may have bought Twitter to gain political influence, but Mark Zuckerberg hired a politician for the same reason. This is how social media, Big Tech, and politics collide in our new world of oligarchy.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nickclegg_as-a-new-year-begins-i-have-come-to-the-ugcPost-7280658525855404032-BRaE
But who is Nick Clegg, and why is he important? Well, Nick Clegg was the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015. Remember that.
Before Nick Clegg came along, Mark Zuckerberg had a big problem. He ran the world’s largest social network, but politicians around the globe didn’t trust him. And why would they? Zuckerberg’s reputation was built on shaky foundations—Facebook began as a Harvard-exclusive project piggybacking on a “Hot or Not” clone. He leveraged it into a massive company that collected user data, often without full consent.
So, what was Zuckerberg to do? How could he win over governments and get them to cooperate with his agenda? The solution: hire Nick Clegg. Since joining Meta, Clegg has effectively acted as a political lobbyist on steroids. If you’ve ever wondered how Facebook survived scandals like Cambridge Analytica or the role it played in the Rohingya genocide (yes, that happened because of Facebook), the answer is Nick Clegg.
Facebook has repeatedly been caught siphoning user data—often without consent—and even creating shadow profiles for people who don’t use its services. Yet, thanks to Clegg, the company has weathered controversy after controversy. Since 2015, Clegg has helped Meta (formerly Facebook) maintain its dominance and push through its agenda.
Now, compare that to ByteDance, the company behind TikTok. ByteDance operates in a similar manner to Meta, but here’s the key difference: ByteDance doesn’t have a Nick Clegg. It doesn’t have a high-profile former politician from a G7 nation on its executive board. Worse (or better, depending on your view), ByteDance is linked to the Chinese government. While that hasn’t been definitively proven, Chinese law mandates that companies must comply with the Chinese Communist Party when requested. This connection alone has put ByteDance on the verge of being banned in the U.S. and allied nations.
So, shouldn’t Meta face similar scrutiny? Shouldn’t we question how Meta has compromised elections, enabled genocides, and harvested data on a massive scale? Maybe we should. But Meta had Nick Clegg, a politician-turned-executive, to shield it.
Never forget this: Elon Musk may have bought Twitter to gain political influence, but Mark Zuckerberg hired a politician for the same reason. This is how social media, Big Tech, and politics collide in our new world of oligarchy.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nickclegg_as-a-new-year-begins-i-have-come-to-the-ugcPost-7280658525855404032-BRaE