Nick Clegg on Facebook's Trump decision

Dialogues with Richard Reeves

Facebook just imposed a two-year ban on Donald Trump for inciting the Jan 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. I talked to Nick Clegg, VP for Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook, about the decision - and how the company will handle public figures on the platform from now on. We also discuss the challenges of striking a balance between free speech and protection from harm; the mistake I think the company made in banning some content about the possible origins of COVID-19; how “frothy techno-utopianism” has curdled into a form of “techno-pessimism”; the choice between open and closed politics; the paternalism implicit in many critiques of social media; the urgent need for government regulation; how the company’s Oversight Board could be an embryonic regulator for the industry as whole; how JS Mill got it right about when to curb speech that could lead to violence; elitism in politics; why he’s really not an aristocrat; the pros and cons of life in California; and much more.

Nick Clegg

Nick has been Vice‑President for Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook since 2018, having previously served as Deputy Prime Minister of the UK from 2010 to 2015, as Leader of the Liberal Democrat party from 2007 to 2015, as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2005 to 2017, and as a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor 2018 for political and public service. Fun fact: he used to fact-check Christopher Hitchens at The Nation.

More Clegg

• Read his important Medium piece from March 31st: You and the Algorithm: It Takes Two to Tango
• Here’s an opinion piece in which he calls for more regulation: Facebook’s Nick Clegg calls for bipartisan approach to break the deadlock on internet regulation
• A good interview here with the Decoder podcast, Facebook's VP of Global Affairs doesn’t think the platform is polarizing
• In October 2017, Nick wrote How To Stop Brexit (And Make Britain Great Again)

Also mentioned

• This line was published in the New York Post: “What was the point of the American Revolution if some aristocratic British nerd can decide which Americans get to speak?”
• Nick referred to Facebook’s Community Standards (just updated), which define hate speech and other rules of content on the platform.
• We talked a lot about Facebook’s Oversight Board. In its Charter, the purpose of the board is described as being “to protect free expression by making principled, independent decisions about important pieces of content and by issuing policy advisory opinions on Facebook’s content policies.”
• After Facebook banned Trump indefinitely, the Oversight Board was critical: here is the case report in which they wrote, “In applying a vague, standardless penalty and then referring this case to the Board to resolve, Facebook seeks to avoid its responsibilities. The Board declines Facebook’s request and insists that Facebook apply and justify a defined penalty.” Nick released a statement in response to this news.
• I referred to the UK’s Social Mobility Commission
• More details on the recent reversal of the decision to ban content suggesting that Covid could be man-made
• Mark Zuckerburg said in a speech at Georgetown in 2019: “I’m proud that our values at Facebook are inspired by the American tradition, which is more supportive of free expression than anywhere else.” Additionally, in May 2020, he said Facebook should not act as an “arbiter of truth”
• I referenced this passage from On Liberty (Ch III): “An opinion that corn-dealers are starvers of the poor, or that private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn-dealer, or when handed about among the same mob in the form of a placard.”

The Dialogues Team

Creator: Richard Reeves

Research: Ashleigh Maciolek

Artwork: George Vaughan Thomas

Tech Support: Cameron Hauver-Reeves

Music: "Remember" by Bencoolen (thanks for the permission, guys!)