Mark Zuckerberg Gives Top Meta Job to Republican

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hired Joel Kaplan, former President George W. Bush’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff, to run Meta’s public policy department, according to a Thursday report.

Semafor reported that Kaplan would replace former British lawmaker Nick Clegg in the role. Clegg ran Meta’s global policy team during a two-year period in which Semafor reported Kaplan complained the company’s policies censored conservatives on Meta’s platforms.

The outlet reported:

Meta is overhauling its global policy team, replacing President Nick Clegg with Joel Kaplan, his deputy and the company’s most prominent Republican, people familiar with the matter said.

Kaplan, who was White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George W. Bush, has been one of the most forceful voices inside Meta against restrictions on political speech, arguing internally that such policies would disproportionately mute conservative voices. Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister and ex-leader of the country’s Liberal Democrats, joined Meta in 2018 to lead its policy and lobbying efforts and was named president in 2022.

Zuckerberg thanked Clegg for his time running the department.

Kaplan’s promotion comes as CEOs in tech and business have traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Presdient-elect Donald Trump ahead of his second inauguration later this month.

Zuckerberg met with Trump in person three weeks after the Nov. 5 election.

Forbes reported two weeks ago:

TikTok’s top exec is the latest in a string of business leaders getting busy to make the trek to the Sunshine State in advance of Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States next month.

The batch of bosses have included CEOs from Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and OpenAI — to highlight some of the biggest names — and they’ve largely been mum as to what they’ve discussed with Trump. The companies have not responded to email requests for comment regarding the nature of those respective meetings, topics covered or intended outcomes.

Trump later remarked, “Everybody wants to be my friend.”