The UK government has launched an internal inquiry to identify ‘spies’ who may have leaked secret details about its plans to regulate Facebook to the tech giant, according to the Daily Mail. Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg – who recently became Meta’s new president of Global Affairs – reportedly received the sensitive information.
The search will cover the Treasury, Foreign Office, and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the paper reported on Saturday. The probe was apparently launched last week after a Financial Times article on the government’s upcoming Online Safety Bill, which aims to police social media platforms.
That report quoted an unnamed tech executive “who has seen the proposals” about regulation – which were apparently contained in confidential letters called ‘write-rounds’ that are only circulated between a handful of senior ministry officials, the Daily Mail noted.
But unnamed sources told the paper that fears about a potential leak had been raised as early as June 2020, when Clegg apparently cited classified information from one such letter during a Zoom call with government officials.