How to Regulate Facebook (with Nick Clegg)

Facebook serves 34 percent of the world’s population and decides who to block and what to censor. How should governments regulate this startling power? Nick Clegg, the UK’s former deputy prime minister and now vice president of Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook, joins Azeem Azhar to explore how governments might reassert control in the exponential age.

They also discuss:

• The major regulatory legislation coming down the pike in the U.S., the EU, and India.
• Why allowing data portability between networks could be good for competition but a challenge for privacy.
• Whether Facebook’s Oversight Board could be used to regulate other tech companies.
• Why Clegg is pushing Facebook for increased transparency of its algorithms.

@nickclegg
@azeem
@exponentialview

Further resources:

• “Fixing the Social Media Crisis” (Exponential View podcast with Sinan Aral, 2021)
• “A bipartisan approach to break the deadlock on internet regulation” (Nick Clegg, Medium, 2021)
• “Facebook must not be allowed to dictate how it gets regulated” (Wired, 2020)
• “Battle commences A formidable alliance takes on Facebook” (The Economist, 2020)

HBR Presents is a network of podcasts curated by HBR editors, bringing you the best business ideas from the leading minds in management. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Harvard Business Review or its affiliates.