Facebook’s new comms chief Nick Clegg protested ‘crazed’ Donald Trump

Nick
Clegg, new Facebook VP for global affairs and
communications.
Leon Neal/Getty
Images

• Facebook announced on Friday the appointment of former
  UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg as its new VP for global
  affairs and communications.
• Clegg has expressed virulent opposition to US President
  Donald Trump, joining a demonstration against Trump when he
  visited the UK in July.
• Clegg’s public views about Trump come after the
  president has attacked Google and other tech firms over what he
  sees as a liberal bias.

Facebook produced a surprise on Friday when it announced former UK deputy prime
minister Nick Clegg as its new VP for global affairs and
communications.

Clegg was leader of centrist party the Liberal Democrats and
served alongside Prime Minister David Cameron in Britain’s
coalition government between 2010 and 2015.

As a heavyweight politician who has spent years in the public
eye, his views on many subjects are well known. This means he
carries a certain amount of baggage with him as he starts his new
role at Facebook next Monday.

Recently, Clegg expressed is opposition to US President Donald
Trump. In a tweet from July, Clegg explained why he was
joining the anti-Trump protests taking place in London during
the president’s visit to the UK.

Citing what he viewed as Trump’s “crazed attacks” on the EU,
NATO, and the World Trade Organisation, Clegg said Trump
“dislikes everything I believe in and believes in everyone I
dislike.”

The views are even more potent when you consider how senior Clegg
will be at Facebook. He will report into COO Sheryl Sandberg and
has been charged with bringing an outsider’s perspective to CEO
Mark Zuckerberg’s tight-knit inner circle.

It also comes at a delicate juncture in Silicon Valley’s
relationship with Trump. The president has recently accused tech
firms of left-wing bias. In August, for example, he
erroneously accused Google of rigging search results to
produce negative news stories about him.

Facebook and politics have become increasingly entangled over the
past 12 months. Facebook
showed press inside its election “war room” this week, which
it built to snuff out misinformation during the US midterm
elections.

In a statement announcing his arrival at Facebook, Clegg made
mention of its role in democracy. He said:

“Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Oculus and Instagram are at the
heart of so many people’s everyday lives – but also at the heart
of some of the most complex and difficult questions we face as a
society: the privacy of the individual; the integrity of our
democratic process; the tensions between local cultures and the
global internet; the balance between free speech and prohibited
content; the power and concerns around artificial intelligence;
and the wellbeing of our children.

“I believe that Facebook must continue to play a role in finding
answers to those questions – not by acting alone in Silicon
Valley, but by working with people, organizations, governments
and regulators around the world to ensure that technology is a
force for good.”