Meta’s former policy chief Nick Clegg seems to be navigating a delicate path as he promotes his upcoming book, “How to Save the Internet.”
Unlike some other Meta employee memoirs, “How to Save the Internet” doesn’t appear to be a tell-all or harsh critique. In an interview with the Guardian, Clegg (formerly the leader of the U.K.’s Liberal Democrats) gives the impression of distancing himself from Silicon Valley while not completely disavowing his former employer.
“I really do believe that, despite its imperfections, social media has allowed billions of people to communicate with each other in a way that has never happened before,” he stated, adding that he wouldn’t have worked for Meta “if I felt Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg were the monsters other people say they are.”
However, he offered notable comments about the Valley, describing it as having a “cloyingly conformist” culture where “everyone wears the same clothes, drives the same cars, listens to the same podcasts, follows the same fads.”
Clegg also expressed puzzlement over the industry’s growing obsession with masculinity, stating, “I couldn’t, and still can’t, understand this deeply unattractive combination of machismo and self-pity.”