Zuckerberg recruited a new "fire captain" for Meta.
According to Bloomberg, on February 16, local time, Mark Zuckerberg promoted Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs and communications at Meta, to president of global affairs, who will be responsible for all policy matters such as Meta's interaction with the government and product publicity.
"We need a senior leader of the same level as me and Sheryl Sandberg who can lead and represent us on all policy issues around the world," Zuckerberg said. ”
Earlier, Zuckerberg had said he didn't care about politics. But over the years, Meta has frequently attracted criticism from the outside world for issues such as regulation and political advertising. In March 2018, after Facebook's "Cambridge Privacy Gate" broke, the controversy reached its peak.
Zuckerberg, who is in number one position, has had to find time to address these issues — he only issued a statement and apologized five days after the news broke— and in April, he attended Congress for the first time to answer questions from Facebook head-on. How to mediate with politicians, how to maintain a smile before public, how to take the initiative to maintain close contact with politicians such as Trump's son-in-law Kushner... All of them have become new topics that need to be remediated in Xiaoza's busy schedule.
In October of that year, a distraught Zuckerberg approached Clegg, who had been Britain's deputy prime minister for five years, and decided that his experience as a member of the European Union parliament would greatly help Facebook, lobbying him for months to succeed Elliot Schrage, vice president of global affairs and communications, who left in June. It is reported that Craig earns as much as 4 million pounds a year.
Clegg
After Clegg took office, he took on a number of problems for Zuckerberg, such as in May 2019, when a former Facebook employee posted proposing that Facebook should be split, Craig responded: "Facebook admits that success comes with responsibility. But you can't enforce accountability by calling for the breakup of a successful U.S. company. ”
In 2020, Clegg brought in his friend, former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, as Facebook's co-chair. In 2021, Facebook's censorship and ban on Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts are also inseparable from Clegg's promotion.
For now, the condemnation of Meta is still on, and the situation is even worse than when Clegg first took office: Meta's metaverse map has not yet borne fruit, internal growth is weak, external threats from rival TikTok, and antitrust investigations have to be prevented. The entry into force of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is more likely to result in Meta being forced to stop its services in Europe.
Based on the above difficulties, meta's new quarterly earnings report suffered the biggest stock price plunge in history, and its market value has fallen by more than $400 billion from its peak half a year ago. Zuckerberg may need someone more than ever to extinguish the fire in his backyard so that he can completely escape from the tedious policy matters and spend more time building the metaverse.
After the adjustment of this appointment, Craig will bypass Sandberg and report directly to Zuckerberg. Can he save Meta from fire and water, as Xiao Za wishes?
A
Meta is currently experiencing regulatory difficulties worldwide.
In a recent annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Meta warned the European Union that "the GDPR would hinder the transfer of users' personal data back to U.S. servers, and the company would most likely pull Facebook and Instagram out of Europe as a result." ”
The GDPR is a new data protection law in force in the European Union, which stipulates that companies that collect user data within the European Union are required to save and process data on servers in Europe and prohibit the sharing of data with the United States.
Meta's warning was immediately criticized by the German Economy Minister and the French Finance Minister. Meta soon announced that the company had no intentions or plans to exit Europe. After all, according to Meta's latest fourth-quarter financial report, the proportion of revenue in Europe has reached 24.64%, which is the second largest revenue point outside the United States.
Zuckerberg's attempt to kidnap user demands to play a game with the EU's new policies and reach a compromise has failed for the time being.
Outside the European Union, the United States is not at peace. In June 2021, Facebook was once again subject to an antitrust lawsuit by the US Federal Trade Commission, however, the loss of the lawsuit has aroused the enthusiasm of some people in the United States for Facebook. In January, a coalition of 48 U.S. states appealed again, demanding the splitting of the meta beast.
In meta history, pressure from regulation has always been with it.
Zuckerberg's first public apology in 2006 was because Facebook's "News Feed" was accused of potentially tracking user data. In the years that followed, Zuckerberg repeatedly staged similar dramas, frequently apologizing for privacy violations.
One of the most serious privacy breaches was the "Cambridge Gate" that broke out in 2018. Cambridge Analytica illegally seized data from 50 million Facebook users and used the data to predict their political leanings and target political ads. Decisions such as Trump's election and Brexit have been accused of being manipulated.
Zuckerberg had to appear in a U.S. Congressional summons to question the 50 million user data breach for up to 10 hours. The storm ended with Facebook being fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission. But in fact, the privacy controversy surrounding Facebook has never subsided, and regulation has always been there.
Among the institutions and countries that asked Facebook to respond were the Irish Data Protection Commission, the Belgian Data Protection Authority and many others.
Not only Facebook, Zuckerberg himself is also deeply involved in the whirlpool of public opinion. Zuckerberg has up to 60 percent of the voting power at Facebook, is both chairman of the board and CEO, and has often skipped the board to make decisions and dismiss employees at will. In order to raise funds, the story of Eduardo Safrin, the first investor who betrayed him in the early stages of the business, made his character controversial.
In the Interview with The New Yorker, Zuckerberg liked Augustus the most in roman history because he destroyed political opponents, executed disobedient descendants, and maintained world peace for two hundred years. Zuckerberg was convinced, "[Peace] is not free, he has to do something." ”
These controversies and dilemmas, perhaps in Zuckerberg's view, are one of the costs that must be paid on the road to success.
B
Previously, Craig was in charge of Meta's global policy affairs with Second In command Sandberg.
Zuckerberg has always been accustomed to being a hands-off in areas of disinterest, such as advertising and policy, and sandberg is responsible for marketing, public relations, and regulatory responses in these businesses. And the reason why I am not interested, Zuckerberg explained: "I am not a sleek person, and once I say the wrong thing, it is very costly." ”
In 2007, U.S. federal officials questioned the harm Facebook collected data to users. Zuckerberg spent a lot of time looking for the right person. At a banquet, he met Sandberg, who happened to be good at the management chores he hated, and the two hit it off.
More importantly, Sandberg has the political experience that Zuckerberg values, and he needs this political relationship. "Facebook is in many ways more like a government than a company in the traditional sense. We have a large user community, far more than any other high-tech company. We're really making policies (services). Zuckerberg said.
Since joining Facebook in 2008, Sandberg has carried many things. In her second year in office, the advertising model she built brought Facebook $550 million in revenue, up 70 percent from the previous year; she accompanied Obama on behalf of Facebook in discussions about the economy.
Sandberg
The timing of Sandberg's encounter with Waterloo is also 2018. She prides herself on helping the Trump team spend less than one-eighth of Hillary's advertising efforts, which was ridiculed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, "If we treat users as products, we can make a lot of money, but we don't do that." To make matters worse, in November of that year, Sandberg hired Definers PR to whitewash Facebook on the one hand and pour dirty water on Soros, who had a negative opinion of Facebook.
When Sandberg was denounced and thought she should be replaced, Zuckerberg came out to break the siege, "Sheryl is a very important part of this company, she has spent a lot of energy dealing with the problems we face, she has been a very important partner for me over the past decade, I am proud of the success we have accomplished together, and I hope that we will continue to work together for decades to come." ”
Under Zuckerberg's protection, Sandberg continued to run on the front line of Facebook's scandal. In 2019, she assembled a policy and content team of more than 30,000 people; she stood for Facebook on the European Commission's privacy protection law; and she published many positive Facebook stories on media websites in various countries. She herself has won a lot of favor for a series of speeches she has planned.
But despite this, Zuckerberg was eventually forced to come forward to be questioned by Congress for ten hours because of Sandberg's dereliction of duty. One reality that has to be faced is that Sandberg's influence in Washington politics is declining. Zuckerberg must find another person to deal with this "wartime crisis" so that he has the spare strength to open up new frontiers in the metaverse.
C
The newly appointed "fire captain" Clegg has helped Zuckerberg share a lot of worries in foreign policy.
In the face of criticism of Zuckerberg's rhetoric, in May 2020, Clegg promoted the establishment of a content oversight committee, an organization that can overturn Zuckerberg's decision on content. In an interview, Clegg said the credibility of the committee will gain more recognition over time.
But Meta clearly faces tougher problems than policy. In October 2021, Facebook changed its name to Meta and announced its bet on metaversalities. This action was interpreted by the Washington Post as a response to antitrust pressures and the negative impression of privacy leaks to the public.
Although Zuckerberg previously predicted that "at least for the next three years, Meta's meta-universe business will require long-term capital investment, and the possibility of profitability is very small." "But negative market sentiment is projected directly into the data." According to Meta's 2021 financial report, Reality Labs, which was founded based on metacosm, lost $10.1 billion annually.
On the other hand, Meta growth also peaked. Compared to the third and fourth quarters of 2021, Facebook's daily active user growth has stagnated, and for the first time in 18 years since its inception, this has happened. Affected by this, the day after the new earnings report, Meta's stock price fell in response, down 26.39% from the previous day, and the cumulative market value fell to $661.4 billion. This is the largest single-day loss in the history of U.S. listed companies.
While Meta is fraught with problems, rival TikTok has 1 billion monthly active users, Facebook has gone eight years, and TikTok has only spent four years. In Meta's new quarterly earnings report, TikTok was mentioned 6 times, more than the previous quarterly statement 2 times. Zuckerberg confessed: "TikTok is a strong opponent. ”
In 2022, Meta's historical legacy of user privacy remains. In January, Meta was subject to a £2.3 billion class action lawsuit in the UK after Facebook demanded 44 million users to provide personal data between 2015 and 2019 and profited billions of dollars from it; in February, Meta agreed to pay $90 million to settle a lawsuit in 2012. The reason for this was that in 2012 Facebook was accused of tracking after users logged out. After years of tug-of-war, the settlement was filed with a California court on February 13, local time.
But more flames around Meta and Zuckerberg are still waiting for Clegg to sweep away.
Resources:
1.Meta's Clegg was appointed President of Global Affairs, reporting to the CEO, Bloomberg
2. Decryption: Facebook's Trump War, what happened between the first man and the second progressive woman, Plus America Finance
3. The New Yorker: Zuckerberg, from angel to devil is only one step away, finance eleven
4.Meta will pay $90 million to settle a 10-year-old privacy lawsuit, Lei Feng
5. The metacosm can't save Zuckerberg, Tencent DeepNet
6. Sandberg: Jewish Roses after the Crisis, Flipping Through Books
7. Facebook hired former British deputy prime minister as head of global affairs with an annual salary of £4 million, Europa News Agency
8. Zuckerberg: Will not step down as chairman Sandberg will not resign, NetEase Technology
9. Facebook's content oversight committee unveiled, which can overturn Zuckerberg's decision, The Paper