Mark Zuckerberg has named a brand new sucker to take his punches. In a weblog post, Meta’s founder and CEO mentioned Nick Clegg would now “lead our company on all policy matters,” and resolve how the corporate interacts with governments beneath the brand new, glitzy title, “President, Global Affairs.”

The promotion will see Clegg act as the purpose man for all issues Facebook-speak and may have him “make the case publicly for [Meta’s] products and [Meta’s] work.” Presumably, this may imply persevering with the corporate’s deep-pocketed assault in opposition to brewing antitrust laws and convincing lawmakers to let Meta actually co-write new privacy laws to learn themselves.

Honestly, all that sounds fairly much like Clegg’s mandate beneath his earlier function as Vice President of Global Affairs and Communication. The core distinction with the place change, it appears, is one in every of scope. As Zuckerberg explains, President of Global Affairs Clegg, who as soon as answered to Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, will now report on to Zuckerberg. Presumably, the change will even include a number of hefty bucket fulls of money for Clegg. How a lot would it not price so that you can tackle a job because the coverage and political face of one of many tech least trusted firms?

Towards the top of his put up, Zuckerberg let readers in on extra of the true causes for Clegg’s promotion.

“As Nick takes on this new leadership role, it will enable me to focus more of my energy on leading the company as we build new products for the future,” Zuckerberg mentioned. “And it will support Sheryl as she continues to focus on the success of our business.”

In different phrases, Clegg’s new function would require him to bear the duty for Meta’s actions and clear up years’ value of political, social, and ethical morass concocted beneath the founder’s watch. But hey, it’s mai tais and metaverses for Mark!

For these unaware, Clegg joined Meta (than Facebook) again in 2018 following a prolonged profession in UK politics. Clegg served as a member of the Liberal Democrats after spending 5 years within the European parliament, finally working his approach as much as Deputy Prime Minister. Under his tenure, the social gathering went from holding 57 seats to simply eight. We’ll allow you to be the choose of his political effectiveness.

Still, Facebook reportedly noticed potential in Clegg as a helpful bulwark in opposition to impending EU rules because of his connections within the European parliament. The context for his arrival is vital as effectively. Clegg hopped onboard months after Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into impact and fewer than one full 12 months after Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica debacle.

Since he was employed, Clegg has at occasions acted like Meta’s obedient assault canine, authoring op-eds pushing again in opposition to main Facebook critics and presenting full-throated reward of the corporate’s supposed virtues. Recently, Clegg was on the forefront of Meta’s skirmish with information retailers and whistleblower Frances Haugen over the myriad salacious accusations of wrongdoing included in what’s come to be referred to as “The Facebook Papers.”

Clegg was additionally instrumental in convincing Zuckerberg and Sandberg to take a extra tactical method to authorities regulation, in keeping with the current e-book An Ugly Truth, opting to persuade lawmakers to craft comfortable, favorable regulation fairly than oppose new guidelines outright.

“He [Klegg] said regulations were inevitable, so Facebook needed to lead tech companies in a public campaign to create light-touch, rules instead of more stringent laws,” the e-book’s authors Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang write. Clegg additionally reportedly suggested Meta’s high management to more and more invoke the “what about China” argument to sidestep criticism round Meta’s outsized financial impression and political energy inside the U.S.

Still, it’s exhausting to say whether or not Clegg’s efforts have left the corporate in a greater place than it might’ve been with out him. 

One factor’s for certain, Clegg will definitely have his work lower out for him in his new gig. President Biden’s regulation-hungry FTC and DOJ seem poised to take a much more aggressive stance in coming years. Meanwhile, antitrust laws with vast bipartisan help is clawing its approach by Congress and will current critical threats to Meta’s enterprise mannequin. Oh, and the corporate can be nonetheless recovering from one of many worst stock-free falls in its historical past and faces dwindling new customers throughout its flagship merchandise. Even Peter Thiel, Facebook’s unique money-man, has determined to bounce ship.

Rather than handle these points although, the corporate’s founder seems extra fascinated about drifting off right into a lame digital actuality play place along with his just lately ascribed “Metamates.”