Mark Zuckerberg Replaces Meta’s Head of Politics Operation With Its Most Prominent Republican

Mark Zuckerberg continues His campaign was graced With the incoming Trump administration. After visiting Mar-a-Lago to dine with the incoming president and donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund along with other tech leaders (how much does an inauguration really cost?), Zuckerberg has now replaced the head of Meta’s political arm with the company’s most prominent Republican. Traffic light before Report in the news

Joel Kaplan most recently served as Deputy Head of Global Policy under Nick Clegg, who joined Meta (then Facebook) in 2018 after serving as UK Deputy Prime Minister under David Cameron. Clegg has been something Submissive attack dog For years, Zuckerberg has served as the company’s voice from journalists and politicians on controversial issues. 2022 according to the book “An Ugly Truth,” Clegg advised Meta’s leadership that regulation is inevitable, so it’s better for companies to get out front and help create light-touch regulations rather than more stringent laws. He also advocated for key-side criticism of Meta by drawing attention to China — something Zuckerberg did in his push to ban TikTok.

“I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for Meta and the world over the past seven years,” Zuckerberg told Clegg in a statement Traffic light. “I have learned so much working with you and our entire team is better for having this opportunity. You’ve been an important influence on Meta’s voice and values ​​around the world, as well as advancing our vision for AI and the metaverse. You have also built a strong team to carry this work forward. I am excited for Joel to step into this next role because of his deep experience and insight leading our policy work over many years.”

Whatever Zuckerberg really thinks about Trump, he’s ultimately a capitalist and will do what’s in his company’s best interest. Clegg recently criticized Elon Musk, Trump’s de-facto vice president, in an interview BBC That X is a “one-man, ultra-partisan, ideological hobbyhorse.” Clegg has defended content moderation as necessary to protect audiences from harmful content, in stark contrast to Musk’s mission to eliminate any and all censorship.

Kaplan, meanwhile, served as White House deputy chief of staff under George W. Bush earlier in his career and is said to have argued internally in Meta. Against restrictions on political speech disproportionately harms conservatives.

As Trump enters his second and final term, it makes sense for him to appoint a new policy leader, more aggressive and ready to attack than his first. Trump had no experience in politics when he last took office and was later distracted by the pandemic. This time will be different, his incoming team is already said to be preparing A storm of executive action Installed within a few hours of taking office.

Meta reinstated all of Trump’s accounts after banning them following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, and Zuckerberg went as far this summer. Apologies for censoring content During the COVID-19 pandemic and promised not to repress (Millions of people died ignoring the COVID-19 measures). In general, meta has de-prioritised news content AI-generated engagement slop That is more light hearted in nature. Zuckerberg has thrown up his hands and said he doesn’t want to work on divisive content.

Trump responded to these moves, saying Back in October he liked Zuckerberg “much better now.”

Zuckerberg, of course, isn’t the only leader who sparred with Trump during his first administration only to change his tune. So have leaders including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook. Ring Kissing Pilgrimage After being vociferously attacked by Trump on various issues earlier. At the end of the day, these leaders don’t want to incur Trump’s wrath again and will do whatever it takes to protect their empire. Especially now that Musk, who has criticized Silicon Valley leaders and runs his own competing companies, has Trump’s ear and can influence policy or line up his initiatives for preferential treatment.