Joel Kaplan

Joel Kaplan
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
In office
April 20, 2006 – January 20, 2009
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byKarl Rove
Succeeded byMona Sutphen
Personal details
Born1969 (age 54–55)
Weston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic (Before late 1990s)
Republican (late 1990s–present)
Spouse
Laura Lyn Cox
​
(m. 2006)​
EducationHarvard University (BA, JD)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Marine Corps
Years of service1991–1995

Joel David Kaplan (born 1969) is an American political advisor and former lobbyist working as Facebook's vice president of global public policy.[1] Previously, he served eight years in the George W. Bush administration.[2] After leaving the Bush administration, he was a lobbyist for energy companies.[3]

Within Facebook, Kaplan is seen as a strong conservative voice.[4] He has helped place conservatives in key positions in the company, and advocated for the interests of the right-wing websites Breitbart News and The Daily Caller within the company.[5][3][6] He has successfully advocated for changes in Facebook's algorithm to promote the interests of right-wing publications,[3] and successfully prevented Facebook from closing down Facebook groups that were alleged to have circulated fake news, arguing that doing so would disproportionately target conservatives.[7]

  1. ^ Tony Romm (May 26, 2011). "Facebook picks up former Bush aides". Politico.
  2. ^ "White House biography". The White House. Archived from the original on March 3, 2014. Retrieved December 25, 2006.
  3. ^ a b c "How conservatives learned to wield power inside Facebook". The Washington Post. 2020.
  4. ^ Frenkel, Sheera; Isaac, Mike; Kang, Cecilia; Dance, Gabriel J. X. (June 1, 2020). "Facebook Employees Stage Virtual Walkout to Protest Trump Posts". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "How key Republicans inside Facebook are shifting its politics to the right". the Guardian. November 3, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).