Nick Clegg’s book on saving the internet reveals surprising stories from inside Meta

Nick Clegg’s stint as Meta’s president of global affairs ended earlier this year. Now, in his book How to Save the Internet, he outlines what he thinks needs to change in tech. The reception hasn’t been kind, with some calling the book “baffling and unsatisfying.” But buried in the otherwise thin prose are a few surprising anecdotes and arguments.

Clegg once sparred with his deputy in MMA

Mark Zuckerberg’s reinvention as an MMA enthusiast is well documented. Less known is how he encouraged his senior executives to join him. “Mark’s commitment to MMA is so strong that he insisted one morning, during a management offsite, that some of his most senior executives join him for a training session,” Clegg writes. That’s how he ended up on the mat, straddled by his deputy Joel Kaplan (who would later replace him), in “a manoeuvre apparently known as the ‘Domination Mount’,” which Clegg admits was “too close for comfort.”

Politics accounts for just 6% of the Facebook feed

Clegg makes a spirited, if not always convincing, attempt to address the claim that Meta has harmed public interactions and polarized politics. “Most people don’t really use social media to engage in politics,” he writes. Political content, he claims, makes up less than 6% of what people see on Facebook. If you want to assign blame for political discourse, he suggests, look instead to X (formerly Twitter).

According to Clegg, social media has transformed democracy, but it hasn’t destroyed it. “Undoubtedly it has [changed democracy],” he writes, describing it as a “disruptive and messy change.” He argues it will take time to understand the full implications but insists there are benefits alongside the well-documented problems.

Clegg suspended Donald Trump’s account in 2021

One underexplained section covers Meta’s response to Donald Trump’s role in the January 6 Capitol riots. Trump was banned from Facebook apps, a decision later reversed after his suspension ended. “Trump’s support for those protesting at the Capitol, and his refusal to condemn the violence of the insurrectionists, was tantamount to inciting further violence,” Clegg writes, adding that “Mark Zuckerberg made clear that the decision would be mine.” Clegg ultimately chose to suspend Trump’s access to Facebook and Instagram.

How AI will change our world

Clegg thinks generative AI can help address the West’s stagnating productivity. “The implicit promise of capitalism is that the next generation will be better off than the last, with hard work rewarded by economic security and decent public services to provide a safety net when tragedy or misfortune strikes,” he wrote. That promise, he argues, has broken down: younger generations are overworked, underpaid, and overstressed.

Clegg believes AI can help. “I’m not suggesting AI is a silver bullet that will suddenly reverse decades of gradual decline,” he wrote. “But the developed world badly needs a productivity boost.”

Clegg wasn’t a fan of the AI Safety Summit—or AI doomers

Clegg recounts his experience at the AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park in November 2023, attended by Kamala Harris, Rishi Sunak, and Ursula von der Leyen. Clegg claims he told a story about a hypothetical woman, called “Mrs. Miggins,” who lived just down the road from the summit. He writes: “’I can guarantee,’ I said, ‘that she’s more terrified of AI now than she was before this summit started two days ago.’”

Little surprise, then, that he also dismisses doomsday scenarios of AI domination. “We’re merely in the foothills, debating the perils we might find at the mountaintop,” he writes.