Mark Zuckerberg has just given Nick Clegg a bigger role at Meta

Meta Platforms Inc. today announced that the U.K.’s former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg is getting a promotion, one that will put him on a level almost equal to the boss, Mark Zuckerberg.

Clegg (pictured), or Sir Clegg in the U.K., is currently Meta’s head of policy and communications and was the vice president of global affairs. He’s now been elevated to president of global affairs and will now represent Meta when it comes to big policy decisions and interacting with governments around the world.

“For the last three years, Nick has managed some of the most complex issues our company faces, including content policy, elections, the establishment of the Oversight Board, and more,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “Nick will now lead our company on all our policy matters, including how we interact with governments as they consider adopting new policies and regulations, as well as how we make the case publicly for our products and our work.”

It may look as though Clegg is now to be Meta’s fall guy, given the amount of flak that Zuckerberg takes. Clegg certainly has an impressive resume, although a somewhat strange one for someone now at the top of a social media company. He was the leader of the Liberal Democrat party in the U.K from 2007 to 2015 and served as the Deputy Prime Minister of the country from 2010 to 2015.

He lost his constituency seat in the 2017 general election and later in 2018 got out of politics (mostly) to become Facebook Inc.’s vice president for global affairs and communications. Since then, he’s been called “Europe’s man in Silicon Valley” and has spent much of his time trying to improve the image of Facebook/Meta, as well as doing things such as creating the company’s Oversight Board.

“Given the expanded scope of this new role, he will now report directly to me as well as Sheryl,” said Zuckerberg. “As Nick takes on this new leadership role, it will enable me to focus more of my energy on leading the company as we build new products for the future, and it will support Sheryl as she continues to focus on the success of our business.”

Sandberg said it was a “crucial” time for Clegg to step into these new shoes “as new rules for the internet are written all over the world.” Given the avalanche of criticism Meta has come under of late, she might just have a point.

Photo: Liberal Democrats/Flickr