Nick Clegg, the former UK deputy prime minister and Meta's ex-head of global affairs, has stated that Silicon Valley companies, including Meta, have decided to embrace Maga politics, often for "rather more self-interested" reasons. Clegg spent nearly seven years at Meta before leaving in March 2025, three months into the second Trump administration, describing it as "a very good time for me to move on."
Shift in Executive and Product Strategy
Clegg observed that executives who previously shunned politics pivoted right, while the products themselves "changed utterly: from being human-centric to being much more about content, often synthetic content, algorithmically recommended to you." This transformation reflects a broader trend in the tech industry toward embracing political affiliations that align with business interests.
Criticism of Palantir Contract
Clegg also questioned the UK's contract with the US software company Palantir, expressing distaste for the firm's ideology and raising concerns about whether "Palantir is making itself too sticky" by fostering dependency among its clients. Palantir's contracts with the UK have been a subject of mounting controversy, with a recent report from parliament's science, innovation and technology committee labeling Palantir as the "most concerning example of the public sector's growing reliance on a small number of major technology providers." The committee urged the government to end its contract with Palantir in 2027, when a break clause becomes available.
Responses and Defenses
Former health secretary Wes Streeting described Palantir executives as "Blofeld villains" at an event but defended the company's stewardship of UK health data and refused to call for contract termination. A Palantir spokesperson highlighted the company's contributions to healthcare, including 110,000 additional operations and a 15% reduction in discharge delays, and noted that Streeting himself called the platform "absolutely critical to the future of the NHS." Clegg suggested that AI could disrupt Palantir, though the company's core offerings are data integration platforms that now incorporate AI without building their own foundational models.
Clegg's Tenure at Meta
Clegg joined Meta in 2018 as a lobbyist after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, managing fallout and creating a content moderation oversight body. His tenure coincided with the publication of whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams's book Careless People, which alleged blundering decisions and sexual harassment at Meta. Meta secured an emergency legal order preventing Wynn-Williams from discussing aspects of the book publicly. Meta did not respond to a request for comment but previously described the book as a "mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims."
