Ex-Meta Exec Nick Clegg Calls Silicon Valley ‘Cloyingly Conformist’

Former Meta executive Nick Clegg has delivered a biting review of Silicon Valley culture and its so-called “tech bros.”

Speaking with The Guardian to promote his coming book, “How to Save the Internet,” Clegg, who was Meta’s president of global affairs before announcing his resignation in January, described the California tech hub as “cloyingly conformist.”

“Everyone wears the same clothes, drives the same cars, listens to the same podcasts, follows the same fads,” he said. “It’s a place born of an immense sort of herd-like behavior.”

Before Meta, Clegg was the leader of the UK’s Liberal Democrats and the country’s deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2015.

He joined Meta (then Facebook) in 2018 as vice president of global affairs, before being promoted to the firm’s top comms and policy role in 2022. He oversaw content policy, elections, and the company’s government interactions, among other things.

In the interview, Clegg also had some strong words on Silicon Valley’s “tech bro” culture.

The “tech bro” wave hit its peak during Clegg’s tenure at Meta, led by his then-boss Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

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While making it clear he was not referring to Zuckerberg, Clegg said many of the region’s wealthiest and most powerful leaders displayed what he called a “deeply unattractive combination of machismo and self-pity.”

“You’d think, wouldn’t you, that if you were immensely powerful and rich like Elon Musk and all these other tech bros and members of that podcast community, that you’d reflect on your good fortune compared with most other people?” he said.

“In Silicon Valley, far from thinking they’re lucky, they think they’re hard done by, they’re victims.”

“It is a cultural thing, from Elon Musk’s chainsaw-wielding stuff to any Silicon Valley podcast,” he added. “If you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”