Sir Nick Clegg, the former Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister of the UK between 2010 and 2015, was promoted to president of Facebook’s owner Meta.
Clegg will be on the same level as Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, who are the two most senior bosses at the company.
The former politician will be president for global affairs and will work on regulatory issues for the colossal social media company. The move comes as Zuckerberg steps back from making policy decisions to focus on its entrance into the metaverse.
“We need a senior leader at the level of myself (for our products) and Sheryl (for our business) who can lead and represent us for all of our policy issues globally,” Zuckerberg said on Facebook.
The 55-year-old will liaise with governments globally to try and persuade them that Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp are valuable to society and do not need further regulations, Sky News said.
Meta was accused of "harming children, stoking division and weakening our democracy" by whistle-blower Frances Haugen, a former employee that leaked tens of thousands of damning internal documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission in October.
Clegg joined Facebook’s ranks in 2018 in public relations following his exit from politics when he lost his Sheffield Hallam seat in 2017.
He joined as the company was coming under increasing scrutiny due to allegations surrounding its involvement in the 2016 US presidential election as well as the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.