Nick Clegg defends Facebook, saying it is not in the company's interest, financially or reputationally, to push users towards ever more extreme content

In — a recent article for The Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance compared Facebook to a Doomsday Machine: “a device built with the sole purpose of destroying all human life.”

Medium 2021-03-31 Nick Clegg

Context & Ripple Effects

Clegg had already been positioned as Facebook's policy-and-communications lead, including work on the Oversight Board, while the company said it would restrict content circulation during election-related unrest. His defense frames Facebook's incentives, rather than an announced product or enforcement change, as the answer to criticism of its role in public discourse.

The statement also foreshadows a messaging line that later accompanied plans for more friends and less politics in News Feed, linking reputational defense to feed-design and safety commitments.

First-order effects

Facebook and Nick Clegg publicly tie the company's financial and reputational interests to avoiding extreme-content amplification, making that incentive claim central to its response to critics.
Clegg's role as the company's public-policy spokesman becomes more consequential: he is defending Facebook's underlying recommendation incentives, not merely a discrete moderation decision.

Second-order effects

Facebook's earlier pledge to restrict circulation in periods of civil unrest becomes a practical test of Clegg's claim: critics can measure the stated incentive alignment against enforcement choices.
News Feed changes marketed around less political content gain a reputational function alongside product goals, since they offer Facebook a visible way to demonstrate distance from the behavior Clegg rejects.

Third-order effects

Platform governance is increasingly contested through claims about incentive design as well as individual content decisions, putting greater weight on whether companies can substantiate their stated alignment between engagement, safety, and reputation.
If senior communications executives continue to front these arguments, responsibility for politically difficult governance choices becomes more institutionalized beyond Facebook's founder-led public posture.

The trend: Facebook is moving toward defending platform governance through incentive-based narratives, paired with feed and distribution controls that are meant to make those narratives credible.

Discussion

@nick_clegg Nick Clegg on x
But the caricatures of social media's algorithms don't tell the full story: You are an active participant in the experience. The personalized “world” of your News Feed is shaped heavily by your choices and actions.
@nick_clegg Nick Clegg on x
The debate over social media's role in society often centers on concerns that people are being manipulated by algorithms they can't control. Some say the machines have already won. Read my take here: https://nickclegg.medium.com/ ...
@jjvincent James Vincent on x
Facebook's big defense of charges of algorithm-driven polarization and amplification of extremist content is essentially “well you clicked on that shit” https://medium.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@etherington Darrell Etherington on x
Facebook just wants to offload responsibility while not actually addressing its core problems https://twitter.com/...
@nick_clegg Nick Clegg on x
This piece is lengthy, but the questions surrounding technology's power - and the companies behind it - are complex and require thoughtful consideration.
@nick_clegg Nick Clegg on x
Some of this criticism is fair: companies like Facebook need to be frank about how the relationship between you and their ranking systems really works. And they need to give you more control.
@nick_clegg Nick Clegg on x
People are only going to feel more comfortable with the algorithms behind News Feed if they have more visibility into how they work and more control over what they see. So we're rolling out new tools to help people better understand and control what they see in their News Feeds.
@andymstone Andy Stone on x
.@nick_clegg's essay is worth a read as it addresses some of the macro charges levied against Facebook, and social media more generally, of late. It acknowledges where critics have a point, where they simply miss the mark and how Facebook is charting a course forward. https://twi…
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
Nick Clegg lives in Silicon Valley but has dropped his new 5,000-word opus in the middle of his night to ride the waking US news cycle. So while the west coast sleeps, allow me to kick things off by saying this attempt to manipulate the media is all too transparently obvious http…
@olifranklin Oli Franklin-Wallis on x
Nick Clegg's long and boring defence of Facebook essentially boils down to “it's not our fault, it's yours”. In particular, he blames legacy media, while totally ignoring the fact that mass media has totally transformed in order to please FB's algorithm. https://medium.com/...
@edbott Ed Bott on x
“Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?” I mean, how many millions does Facebook pay Nick Clegg to say exactly this sort of thing? https://twitter.com/...
@imbadatlife Luke Bailey on x
Nick Clegg is saying here that radicalisation is the fault of users https://twitter.com/...
@matt_muir Matt Muir on x
Expect a LOT more of this from Facebook in the coming months. “Yes, this stuff IS complex, and DOES have socioeconomic implications - but you don't understand it, do you? So make sure you let us work with you to sort it out (or else)”: https://about.fb.com/...
@psawers Paul Sawers on x
It's his job to defend Facebook, he gets millions to do so. Would expect nothing else really. https://twitter.com/...
@katiecollins Katie Collins on x
My issue with this analogy is that the decision making takes place in a context where trust is established — you understand your partner and feel your partner understands you. Whereas users' relationships with FB today are shaped by historic distrust and lack of transparency http…
@jtemperton James Temperton on x
Nick Clegg has published a very long Medium post about why Facebook is, in fact, really great and not a threat to democracy. His argument is flawed! First up, he blames humanity, not Facebook, for making Facebook a polarising hellhole. Nice try, Nick! https://medium.com/...
@dannypage Danny Page on x
Tangent: Between Jay Carney and Nick Clegg, this week has been a reminder of how many 2010s centrist politicians have ended up at big tech companies. https://twitter.com/...
@mtrc Mike Cook on x
Nick Clegg really has perfected the art of locating the absolute worst people he can find and then enabling and defending them to the hilt. https://twitter.com/...
@adrianweckler Adrian Weckler on x
Here's Nick Clegg's full piece on this. “People are portrayed as powerless victims, robbed of their free will. Humans have become the playthings of manipulative algorithmic systems. But is this really true? Have the machines really taken over?” https://nickclegg.medium.com/ ...
@pkafka Peter Kafka on x
Facebook defends itself, on Medium: https://nickclegg.medium.com/ ...
@shiraovide Shira Ovide on x
It would be helpful if Facebook acknowledged that a large number of the changes it made to ranking posts happened because of outside pressure to change. https://nickclegg.medium.com/ ...
@mattnavarra @mattnavarra on x
Facebook's got Nick Clegg to post another eloquently worded mini-essay I'm starting to wonder what else he actually does for Facebook https://about.fb.com/...
@zilevandamme Phumzile Van Damme on x
.@nick_clegg as a former politician, I know you you know that there's a very thin line between spin & misleading. This, here is misleading. I hope it's rather an instance of not being provided with the right info because this misleading? It only serves to widen FB's trust deficit…
@abelardinelli Alex Belardinelli on x
Announcing a bunch of new controls for Facebook users - including being able to choose who can comment on your public posts + a simple way to change your News Feed from algorithmically ranked to chronological: https://about.fb.com/...
@aurasalla Aura Salla on x
Don't want #algorithms control your #Facebook news feed? The Feed Filter Bar offers now easy access to ‘Most Recent’, making it simpler to switch between an algorithmically-ranked news feed and a feed sorted chronologically with the newest posts first. https://about.fb.com/...
@fboversight @fboversight on x
Hi Facebook. The issue is not (only) what WE see, courtesy of your algorithm. It's what YOU see and harvest. https://twitter.com/...
@adamholmes010 Adam Holmes on x
Having spent the evening dealing with harmful transphobic and racist comments on our Facebook page, this will be a welcome feature https://twitter.com/...
@manjusrii Belinda Barnet on x
You can finally turn them off—a win for news media outlets who were in the ludicrous position of having to monitor a vast number of stories. This was so stupid and unfair https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@flipprior @flipprior on x
Woahhhhhh this is moderation solution news orgs have asked for for years!! Hot off the press - Facebook now lets users and pages turn off comments on their posts - seeya trolls! https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@benv_w Ben on x
We should applaud the slow wind back of Web 2.0, but our work is not finished until everything is, at most, a static HTML page again (dial in BBSs delivering niche plaintext files preferable) https://twitter.com/...
@missrobinson Amber Robinson on x
OMG OMG OMG. This is huge, and will bring a great sense of relief to organisations who have had a defamation burden on them for social media comments made by other users. https://twitter.com/...
@quiip @quiip on x
This is a fantastic and long-awaited development for Facebook Page owners - although risks will still remain https://twitter.com/...
@earleyedition Dave Earley on x
oh, and this is what the options will look like. It's basically like @Twitter's option to limit who can reply to your tweets https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...

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