Analysis. The coincidence is fraught with meaning. On the eve of the big demonstration in London against the Brexit, one of the few defenders of Europe within the british political world has defected. While 700 000 British were preparing to march on Saturday 20 October, to demand a second referendum, Nick Clegg, 51 years old, deputy prime minister of the united kingdom between 2010 and 2015, announced his recruitment by Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook as ” vice-president in charge of global affairs and communication “, in other words chief lobbyist.
Deserting Westminster, the former president of the lib-dem is about to join the small circle of the leaders of the Silicon Valley, whose ambitions on the management of the world are known. “My feelings are mixed at the time of leaving the public debate on Brexit. But people like me (…) have a limited influence on the outcome of a debate that will soon take place (…) in Parliament, ” is justified on the 19th of October in the Guardian Nick Clegg, who has lost his seat in parliament in 2017. He took up his duties in London on Monday, before moving to California in January 2019. While 48 % of British anti-Brexit are desperate to find a leader able to speak on their behalf, Nick Clegg abandoned the political world to a who’s who of the giants of the Web. As if the real power was now on the side of social networks.
The former vice-prime minister is going to have to make them forget about his rants against the way that Facebook dodge the tax, and his critique of the pretensions of social networks to change the world for the better. “I’m not especially dazzled by Facebook, he wrote, in 2016 in the Evening Standard. I find it a little annoying the culture of messianic in california Facebook where everyone is a friend. “
Today, while Facebook is accused of having influenced the us elections…
