Nick Clegg, a former Deputy Prime Minister politician in the UK, will be joining Facebook as VP for global affairs and communications. The news was reported earlier by the Financial Times and later confirmed by Clegg himself in a blog post. The new VP will be moving to California with his family.
TechCrunch said Clegg will be starting his job on 25 October. He will succeed Elliot Schrage, who has been in that position for ten years and who will be staying on as an advisor.
In his blog post, Clegg notes the complexity brought on by services such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Oculus and Instagram. He noted the difficulties in ensuring privacy for the individual, the integrity of democratic processes, handling tensions between local cultures and the global internet, and of balancing free speech and prohibited content. Clegg believes Facebook must not work alone in Silicon Valley but work with people, organisations, governments and regulators around the world to ensure that technology is a force for good.
