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Nick Clegg wipes public Facebook profile, deleting Lib Dem and Brexit posts

Nick Clegg speaks at an anti-Brexit rally in 2017 - AFP
Nick Clegg speaks at an anti-Brexit rally in 2017 - AFP

Nick Clegg has scrubbed all traces of his anti-Brexit activism from his public Facebook page as he begins a new job as the social network's head of global affairs.

Sir Nick, who joined Facebook last month after two years of intense campaigning to reverse the result of the EU referendum, wiped all his posts from the page some time in the last month.

Among the posts deleted are multiple plugs for his book, How to Stop Brexit, and a call for MPs to "reject this damaging Brexit", as well as a post dated October 19 which explained his reasons for accepting his new job.

Instead there is now only a picture of a rugged sunlit landscape and two pictures of himself, one of which appears to be taken in California, where Sir Nick will live with his family after the new year.

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The clean-up came to light as Facebook struggled to contain the fallout from revelations that it conducted an aggressive lobbying campaign to attack its critics and distract journalists from its own scandals.

On Friday investors called on Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, to step down as chairman of its board, warning that his dual role created a "concentration of power" that led it to hide from problems.

An archive of Nick Clegg's Facebook page from April 2018, showing publicity for his book 'How to Stop Brexit' - Credit: Facebook/Telegraph
An archive of Nick Clegg's Facebook page from April 2018 Credit: Facebook/Telegraph

Mr Zuckerberg said Sir Nick would lead a review into Facebook's relationships with lobbying and PR firms, but that he would report to its chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, who is alleged to have led the campaign.

Julie Goodridge, chief executive of Facebook investor Northstar Asset Management, said Sir Nick would be too "subservient to the board and subservient to top level management" to make any real change.

Previously, Sir Nick's page had been full of posts relating to Brexit and the Liberal Democrats, including messages from the 2015 general election when he was leader of that party.

At the time of his appointment he wrote in the Guardian that he still felt that the case for a second referendum was "overwhelming", but that he would "no longer seek to play a public role in that debate [him]self".

A post from 2015 about the Lib Dems - Credit: Facebook/Telegraph
A post from 2015 Credit: Facebook/Telegraph

His hiring drew criticism from politicians on the British and American Right, who regularly accuse Facebook of institutional liberal bias – an impression Ms Sandberg's lobbying campaign was reportedly designed to mitigate.

In July, Sir Nick had said that he would be marching against Donald Trump's visit to Britain because he disagreed with his "crazed attacks on the EU, Nato and the World Trade Organisation".

Sebastian Gorka, a British-born former adviser to President Trump, told the Telegraph it was proof that Facebook "doesn't care" about being a "neutral arbiter" and that it showed "inordinate levels of tone-deafness".

Sir Nick also removed his "likes", which had included the Liberal Democrats and the Lib Dem former minister David Laws. Now only two interests are listed: Fulham FC and the Financial Times.

Facebook and Sir Nick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.