How to Save the Internet: The Threat to Global Connection in the Age of AI and Political Conflict

The global, open internet is fragmenting.

As democracies seek to rein in the power of Big Tech, as Silicon Valley pivots to an America-first agenda, as authoritarian regimes such as China and Russia segregate their populations from the rest of the internet, the most powerful tool ever created for bringing the world together risks being dismantled.

Taking us behind the scenes at Meta and his interactions with world leaders, Nick Clegg, Meta’s former President, Global Affairs, sets out where Big Tech has gone wrong, how Silicon Valley’s insularity has blinded it to its missteps, and the radical reforms of the global platforms that are now needed if they are to secure a long-term future.

But he also makes the case that many of the charges against them - including that their algorithms polarize, manipulate and harm - are vastly overstated or simply untrue. And while new laws that regulate these corporations are essential, imposing national borders on the internet cannot be the answer. That will fatally undermine its capacity for knowledge-sharing, collaboration, education, trade, medical and scientific research, and ultimately for the improvement and empowerment of billions of lives.

Radical, reasonable, deeply felt and disarmingly honest, How To Save the Internet sets out a blueprint for the global cooperation we need in order to reform Big Tech while preserving the fundamental openness of the internet on which our future so depends.

Nick Clegg recently stepped down as President, Global Affairs at Meta, the company’s chief policy decision-maker and its principal interlocutor with world leaders, governments and policymakers around the globe. Previously he was Deputy Prime Minister of the UK. At Meta, he shifted the company toward engagement with regulation, created an independent Oversight Board and opened it up to rigorous academic research. He managed some of the most complex issues the company faces, including content policy and elections, and took key decisions on the suspension (and later reinstatement) of President Trump, the handling of misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the company’s response to Russian state media and covert operations following the invasion of Ukraine. He is the author of two bestselling books and speaks five languages.