Meta replaces Nick Clegg, navigates political pressures and content moderation

The news: Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, is stepping down, to be replaced by Joel Kaplan.

• The appointment of Kaplan, a prominent Republican and Meta’s vice president of public policy, comes as Meta pushes to court favor with the incoming Trump administration.
• Clegg will depart the company within a few months and recently acknowledged that Meta’s content moderation policies are restricting free expression.

Analyst take: “The move also comes as social media is becoming more politically polarized and attitudes toward content moderation are changing. It indicates a potential shift in Meta’s position toward policing political speech on its platform, which has garnered criticism for suppressing conservative voices,” EMARKETER principal analyst Jasmine Enberg said.

Thirty-nine percent of Facebook users and 30% of Instagram users identify as right-leaning, per Pew Research Center.

Zooming out: This shift comes just three weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has been critical of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and was suspended from Meta platforms after the 2021 Capitol attack.

Zuckerberg, along with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Apple’s Tim Cook, are working to align with the new administration to help push the deregulation and pro-business agenda beyond existing antitrust cases.

• “(Trump) seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, I’m going to help him,” Bezos said, per Business Insider.
• Kaplan, who served as deputy chief of staff in the George W. Bush administration from 2006 to 2009, met with Trump in December and has voiced concerns about whether Meta’s content policies could be perceived as being biased against conservative content.

Why it’s worth watching: Kaplan’s appointment signals that Meta may reconsider its content moderation policies, especially those related to political speech.

• With ongoing scrutiny over online censorship, the company may loosen its approach in response to political and internal critique.
• “Kaplan is likely the right person for the job in this political moment,” Enberg said.

Our take: Meta will need to carefully balance its political interests with its target demographic to ensure it doesn’t lose users to other platforms flooding the social media stage.

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