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Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican, has been appointed as Meta’s new top global affairs officer, succeeding Nick Clegg. This leadership transition marks a significant shift in Meta Platforms’ (META.O) strategy.
Meta is making amends with a leader who has accused it of being too political and even threatened to jail its CEO, prompting a shakeup in the policy and communications teams just before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Previously, Kaplan was subordinate to Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and leader of the centre-left Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom.
In Thursday’s social media posts, Clegg announced that Kevin Martin, another long-time Meta executive with a Republican political background, will replace Kaplan as head of global policy.
“As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President of Global Affairs at Meta,” said Clegg.
“Joel is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time – ideally placed to shape the company’s strategy as societal and political expectations around technology continue to evolve,” stated the CEO.
Since joining Meta in 2018, Clegg has taken the lead on several projects, including content policy, elections, and the creation of an independent monitoring board.
Responding to Clegg’s Facebook post, Kaplan characterized the shift as “bittersweet news.”. Earlier, Semafor reported on the appointment of Kaplan.
Before becoming a member of Meta in 2011, Kaplan was George W. Bush’s deputy chief of staff for policy. The business has refuted the allegations that Kaplan promoted a conservative agenda while claiming to be politically neutral.
As an example, in 2021, documents were made public by a Facebook whistleblower who claimed that several of his colleagues had accused him of bending content regulations to appease Republican political figures.
Even after Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as a Supreme Court nominee in 2018, employees were still irritated that Kaplan had attended a Senate session delving into sexual assault claims against him. In a statement, the corporation admitted to “mistakes handling the events.”
Meta’s Evolving Relationship with Trump
Businesses from every industry have been working hard to get along with Trump since he won the election in November.
In a change from previous practice, Meta has donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, according to an organization spokesperson.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has also said he feels bad about sharing content that conservatives don’t like and praised Trump’s reaction to an assassination attempt.
Meta enraged the former president by cutting him off from its services in 2021 following the Jan. 6 assault of the Capitol by Trump supporters, but the overtures appear to have eased tensions in their relationship.
In addition to criticizing Zuckerberg‘s contributions to strengthen election infrastructure, the president-elect has accused Meta of censoring content that would have hurt Biden in the 2020 race.
