Meta, Shaken by Politics and Regulation, Appoints Policy Chief to Replace Zuckerberg

Nick Clegg, President in charge of Meta Platform's policy [Photo by Reuters]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunjin Jeong] Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has appointed an executive to take charge of regulatory and various policy issues. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO who has personally visited government agencies over the years to handle policy matters, plans to focus on products and services to shape Meta's future.

According to Bloomberg and other sources on the 16th (local time), CEO Zuckerberg announced that he promoted Nick Clegg, who has been responsible for global policy issues at Meta, to President and appointed him as Chief Policy Officer, enabling him to make all policy-related decisions at Meta, including interactions with governments.

Clegg, a former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, joined Facebook in 2018 as Head of Policy and Communications. Since then, he has built a close relationship with CEO Zuckerberg, spearheaded the formation of an independent Oversight Board to assist in content-related decisions, and played a key role in the decision to suspend former President Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts following the January 6 Capitol riot.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta [Photo by Reuters]

CEO Zuckerberg explained the background of the appointment, saying, "We needed a leader to handle and lead policy issues globally at the level of myself, who is responsible for products, and COO Sandberg, who is in charge of business." This means that Meta required an executive to manage various regulatory issues, including privacy protection and content integrity, as the company faces challenges worldwide, including in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, reported, "CEO Zuckerberg has spent more time in recent years addressing content moderation and regulatory issues, including political advertising matters." With this appointment, it is expected that he will devote more time to Meta's technology and products and focus on the vision for the virtual world known as the Metaverse.

CEO Zuckerberg said, "With Nick taking on this new role, I can put more energy into developing new products for the future," adding, "and Cheryl will be supported to focus on the success of our business."

Meta also hopes that CEO Zuckerberg will no longer need to publicly respond to the daily flood of policy-related issues. As the U.S. midterm elections approach in November, the company faces the challenge of how social networking services (SNS) should respond to political issues, and this decision by Meta is expected to reduce the risk of CEO Zuckerberg having to take a public stance.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.