Clegg told CNBC on Friday that people should feel “uneasy” about tech companies getting involved in the public space.
“I generally don’t think that politics and tech innovation mixes very well,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” adding: “I think it’s quite good when they kind of keep each other at a certain, respectful distance.”
His interview comes as US President Donald Trump has made a deal with China to keep social media app TikTok running in the US. Signed last week, Trump’s executive order for TikTok has established a joint venture company to oversee the app’s data and algorithm in the US. Critically, Oracle will be controlling cloud services and running security operations for the app, according to CNBC.
Chinese ownership has been reduced to 20%, with The White House stating: “This new joint venture will be run by a new board of directors and subject to rules that appropriately protect Americans’ data and our national security.”
It added: “The proposed divestiture would allow the millions of Americans who enjoy TikTok every day to continue using it while also protecting national security.”
He called for the safety of American data and ownership of the algorithm to be considered closely, which he added would be “quite difficult” to share.
Having stepped down from his Meta role earlier in the year, Clegg now questions the role of big tech in international policy decisions and was openly critical of governments seeking to silo data.
“The moment countries start doing that, the dominoes will start to fall,” he said during his interview. “If everybody says, ‘No, we want our slice of the … data cake.’ Then, of course, the open data flows that drives the internet will start eroding.”
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