Former Meta executive warns of Silicon Valley’s rightward pivot and Palantir dependency

Nick Clegg, Meta’s former head of global affairs, has asserted that Silicon Valley companies, including Meta, have adopted MAGA-aligned politics, with some executives pivoting right for self-interested reasons. Clegg, who departed the company in March 2025, told The Rest is Money podcast that the industry’s political stance had shifted significantly during his tenure. He described a fundamental change in product strategy at Meta, noting a move away from human-centric designs toward algorithmically recommended synthetic content.

Clegg also directed criticism at the UK government’s contract with US software firm Palantir, citing concerns over vendor dependency and the company’s ideology. His comments follow a parliamentary committee report from last week, which identified Palantir as the most concerning example of the public sector’s growing reliance on a small number of major technology providers. The committee urged the government to end its contract with Palantir in 2027, when the contract’s break clause permits termination.

Palantir has strongly defended its role in the UK’s National Health Service, citing significant efficiency gains. A Palantir spokesperson stated that their software has helped deliver an additional 110,000 operations, a 15 per cent reduction in discharge delays, and a 7 per cent increase in early cancer detection. The firm argued that its capabilities are critical to the future of the NHS, with former health secretary Wes Streeting previously describing the company’s stewardship of health data as essential, despite earlier comparing Palantir executives to fictional villains.

Addressing claims of vendor lock-in, Louis Mosley, chief executive of Palantir UK, told the Today programme that the notion is false. He pointed to instances where government departments successfully transferred data and intellectual property to other vendors without issue. However, Clegg suggested that Palantir’s market position could be disrupted by AI-powered rivals, noting that while Palantir uses AI, it has not built its own foundational models.

Clegg’s seven-year stint at Meta began in 2018, following the resignation of Elliot Schrage over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. He managed the fallout from that incident and established a body to oversee content moderation. His departure coincides with ongoing legal disputes involving former Meta director of public policy Sarah Wynn-Williams. Meta has secured an emergency legal order to prevent Wynn-Williams from discussing aspects of her whistleblower book, Careless People, which alleges blundering decision-making and collaboration with the Chinese Communist Party on censorship. Meta has dismissed the book’s claims as a mix of out-of-date reporting and false accusations.