MUMBAI: Well, well, so, that’s how the cookie crumbles.

Meta has replaced its Democrat-leaning chief global affairs officer Nick Clegg with Joel Kaplan who is known for his Republican leanings and was Clegg’s deputy.  Kaplan   was the deputy chief of staff for policy at the White House during the presidency of George W. Bush between 2006 to 2009.

Clegg a former British deputy prime minister and  an ex-leader of the country’s liberal democrats,  joined Meta in 2018, playing a key role in developing policies related to content and elections. He was named president in 2022.

Kaplan joined Meta in 2011 and was once vice-president of US public policy at Meta.

Kevin Martin, the current head of US public policy at Meta, will step into Kaplan’s former role and will be just below him. Kevin was once appointed to the Federal Communication Commission  by George Bush and is also known to be Republican in his leanings.

The changes are happening just as the Republican party’s Donald Trump is set to take over as the US president. 

Mark Zuckerberg and team are doing their best not to take steps that can attract his ire and, if anything inadvertently does, his team should be in a position to get it fixed quick.

If readers recollect, Facebook had taken extreme steps like banning Trump from the social media network for a while but had reinstated his account a while later. Clearly, Meta and Mark Zuckerberg will have to tread carefully as far as the president is concerned.